Akemi of Akatsuki
by I Can't Handle Bitter Things
Summary: Akemi. From girl, to genin, to experimental unit member, to missing nin, to Akatsuki member. Daughter of the Hokage, friend of many, soldier of Konoha and a human being. After throwing away everything,everything for a cause, can she ever recover herself?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto. Just Akemi and Cory, Tatsumi and Scythe and a few other OCs

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

Things haven't been too good for her after she left Konoha. Her blonde hair was lank, her brown eyes dull and her cloths crumpled, dusty and torn. She was running out of supplies soon. That would mean she would look for a merchant wagon, cut their throats and take whatever she wanted. She smirked to herself. Three weeks ago she wouldn't even have thought of that. Now she was a changed Ninja… a missing Ninja.

It had been easy. After Cory left, it got her thinking. 'Why, why did she leave?'. A few months after Sasuke left. Sure he broke her friend, Rinn's heart. She had been his girl friend but she broke it off the day he left. Still, she could see his point. Konoha had become weak after the third Hokage died. Also, she didn't care much for this new Hokage, Tsunade. You want to know why? Simple. It's her mother.

After Akemi's father, Dan ,died, Tsunade practically forgot about her. She entrusted her to the care of her Jonin, Rangiko. "Well, she did something useful. Now I've got a weapon" she said out loud. Her foolish mother had used her powers for s called good, healing. She on the other hand would use her medical abilities in a more….offensive way.

A traders wagon passed by under the tree she was sitting on and a smile crept on her face. A maniac's smile, that is. She jumped on the wagon and before the driver even noticed her , she slashed his neck with three senbon, leaving three clean cuts . That way, if any one found them, they might assume it was a wild animal. The driver fell of the cart and on the ground. A crunching noise on a bump told Akemi that he had just been run over. " Now that's too bad…" she crooned. This part of the woods was known to be safe. He never saw it coming.

She urged the two horses on and they broke into a gallop, headed for the next town. She grabbed his pouch of money before he fell and decided to counting the money later. She'd take what she could carry and let the horses free when she got to the next town. Her thoughts were in her newest gain and she didn't bother looking back, so…she didn't see a figure from the woods emerged.

It looked oddly plant like. There was a half white and half black face on the cloaked figure. Need I mention the red clouds on the black cloak. "Cheeky little brat, that one" black Zetsu said. " Heartless two" the other half spoke " doesn't matter. She left the body for us" and he knelt down by the driver's body, two begin to feast.

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" I better get a map soon…" she said as she found herself in a small town. Her goal was to make it to the rain village by the end of the month. At this rate it wouldn't be happening. She sat on the wagon and looked up at the darkening sky.

_Flash back_

_Akemi sat on a branch on one of the ridiculously huge trees in the forest. It was here that she spent most of her time off. She lazily threw a sharpened twig which landed softly on the trunk of a smaller and skinnier tree. "Ugh…how boring it is these days…and the missions totally suck, I mean, our latest most exciting mission so far was retrieving some cat for some old lady…" and she sat there for the past five minutes, pouring out all her frustrations to a tree, until the shadow of what looked like a huge, white bird caught her interest._

_The creature landed in a clearing in the forest and Akemi was surprised to see a person get of it's back. Akemi immediately went into stealth mode in hid in the bushed below, kunai on the ready. 'This could get interesting…' _

_She crawled forward to get a better look at the rider. He was young, not much older than her, probably two or three years older. He had long blonde hair in a ponytail, and blue eyes. He held a straw hat and wore a black cloak with red clouds imprinted on it. In his free hand she saw… a mouth…yes…a mouth. Akemi recognized him as an Akatsuki member from what she read. ' Akatsuki…?' then, slowly, her lips curved into a smile._

_Akemi threw the kunai she was holding at the stranger, but he turned around and expertly sailed out of harms way at the last second. " What's this? We've got a little spy, un" he said before getting behind Akemi and pressing a kunai to her throat all in quick succession. " Gotcha, un" then, his prisoner suddenly melted. A bewildered Deidara stood back as Akemi, melted away into some waxy substance._

_" Hah! Say hello to my chakra strings!" the real Akemi appeared behind a bush and did several hand signs in a blur. Glowing strings coiled at Deidara's feet snapped into place and Deidara was forced into an outstretched position. He groaned as it stopped his circulation and proved as an obstacle for the air to reach his lungs. " Damn it! You're sneaky, un"._

_Akemi smiled a rather smug smile while twirling a kunai. However in her head was 'Yay! I beat an Akatsuki!' ' Impossible! I can't beat an Akatsuki that easily ' and ' I wonder if the Akatsuki will be mad at me if I beat up one of them'. A wooden mass painfully collided into Akemi and she was tossed to the side like a rag doll where she fell into a mass off branches and leaves. She quickly concealed herself in the branches just as she saw another figure enter the clearing. _

_It was a guy with red hair and brown eyes. He too, had a cloak like the previous one, another Akatsuki member. Akemi smiled slightly as she studied the puppet in his hands. "Eh, Hi Sasori ,un" Deidara said brightly. Sasori eyed the chakra strings that were still glowing bright blue. " Deidara, who attacked you?" Akemi shifted uneasily in her hiding place " a blonde girl with pretty brown eyes. Didn't expect that coming from a chic , un. Guess I let my guard down, un". Sasori sighed "Sure did" and he cut the strings in one fluid motion. _

_Suddenly Sasori looked up at the place where Akemi was hiding. 'Shit, shit , shit…!' Akemi cursed herself mentally. Had she been breathing too loudly? After a few moments , Sasori looked back at his partner, and paid the tree, no further attention. Akemi let out the breath she had been holding and turned around. 'Jeez, I should get out of here, she thought and leaped, quietly away._

_She thought she had been rid of them. She was so wrong. "What the?!" she shouted "Arghh! I've passed this friggin tree five times!". "You have to be more careful then, un". She spun around and came face to face with that blonde ninja. 'Crap! I'm so dead if this continues…' "What do you want, blondie?!" . Deidara smirked "Hey, you're blonde too". Akemi reddened " That's not the freaking point, you freaking stalker". Deidara let out a soft chuckle " You sound like a female version of Hidan". Akemi quirked an eyebrow. 'Hidan?'. _

_"Anyway, I've come to tell you something ,un. You've got guts, attacking an Akatsuki member without back up ,un, but when you snared me in that trap, it was a fluke, un" silence , he continued "so, I'm gonna let you get stronger, un. In the future, come find me and we'll battle for real ,un". Akemi was shocked " But don't forget, un" he suddenly appeared behind her and placed a kunai to her neck. There was a small trickle of blood. He leaned closer so that his mouth was beside her ear "you're life…is mine to take, un" . To his surprise, Akemi smirked "we'll see about that…Deidara". _

_He withdrew the kunai and stepped back " So you know my name ,un, what's yours?". "Akemi". He smiled sadistically "Well, I'll see you some time, Akemi-chan, un"._

_End of flash back_

Her main goal…was to enter Akatsuki, then she'll fight him, fight him and win. "I've got no boundaries any more, Deidara. Watch out, I'm coming to get ya' !"

Alright here's the end of the first chapter. If you want more info go to my other story , _Distribution ninja, belong every where, yet nowhere, _it's still in the making though, so you might be a bit confused, and there could be spoilers. Anyway, reviews please!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto. Just Akemi and Cory, Tatsumi and Scythe and a few other OCs

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

She had been lucky with her find. There was a lot of food. Meat and vegetables mainly, a crate of fruits and a bag of money. There were also two cloaks. One Black, one pink. She felt a pang if guilt. The man she had killed may have had a family… naturally, she took the black cloak. Pink in the forest would only attract trouble. Making a quick decision, she released the horses from the cart.

Heading back to the road wasn't difficult, it only took a couple of coins to buy a map. "Let's see…". She was in the rock country at the moment. It wouldn't take to long to reach the Hidden Rain Village. 'Ah well, at least I'm making progress…'

A week later, it was nearly mid day and the sun was bearing down on her. The down side of having a black cloak is that it always makes things warmer than they actually are. 'Traveling in the Rock country at high noon…was a very bad idea'.

She stopped in a nearby rest stop. As she stepped into the little bar she considered herself lucky to have had a hood on. There were tables full of fully grown men, all carrying weapons and an attitude. "Hello there sweet cheeks!" she heard one of the men whistle to the waitress.

Akemi rolled her eyes and sat herself at the counter. "A beer ,please" she said. The bar keeper looked at her suspiciously "Are you even old enough to drink, sonny? How do I know you ain't just tall for yer age?". Akemi smiled under her hood, "well, I guess you'll have to take my word for it". The bartender shrugged it off and handed her a beer. The door to the pub opened, squeaking loudly.

Two figures stepped in, red clouds drawn on black cloaks. The chatter in the pub died down as the crowd studied the new comers. Slowly and quietly, they made their way to the counter and sat themselves down. One figure was big and hunched and seemed to glide across the floor. The other stood tall, both their faces were covered by straw hats. "A beer, un ,and some oil if you got any, un" said the taller one , flicking some coins on the table, revealing a small mouth on his hand.

Akemi sipped her beer, coolly, at the same time, excitement was bubbling inside of her. 'I might get my rematch sooner than I expected…'. A big man with missing teeth grabbed Deidara's shoulder " Ey, punk, this bar don' welcome Akatsuki members" he said, revealing missing teeth. He gestured to the other men in the bar, grinning stupidly. "Oh, please, un. I've got more power in my little finger than all of you combined, un" he said, his smirking lips, inches away from the rim of the beer in his hand. "What did ya say, you fucking son of a bitch?!" the large man bellowed.

THUD! The man fell down, shock etched on his face. "Please , gentle men. Control your mouth" Akemi said, calmly. Deidara looked up from his glass and looked at The figure beside him, curiously. The men in the pub looked from the man on the floor to Akemi. Suddenly one burst out laughing "what a voice! You sound like a squeaky toy! Hey boys, I think squeaky over here needs to be taught some manners!".

The men stood up, edging closer to their weapons, leering menacingly. The tip of Akemi's mouth curved up in a smile. Suddenly she was standing behind the man who had laughed , her hand on his neck. " That" her nails started glowing "is because" her nails grew longer "I'm a girl" her nails dug deep, deep into the mans neck, puncturing his wind pipe, he gave a squeak . "Who's the squeaky one now, Fool?" She ripped his throat and he fell to the floor ,dead.

The mob inched forward. Masses of senbon appeared in the air, all around the bar, each aiming to kill. Twenty-eight men fell to the ground, a senbon in each of their pulse spots. Akemi stood in the middle of the bar ,unscathed and loving it. The bartender didn't seem affected at all. This kind of stuff happened every day in his pub. The waitress stepped forward and began searching for valuables on the fallen men.

"Hey, I killed them. I better get a pick from the loot" she nodded and smiled, gesturing to the table filling up with valuables. 'What kind of sick, psychotic people are these?' Akemi thought as she returned to her drink. Deidara studied her for a while, eyeing her hood. "I could have handled it, un". Akemi smiled "Yeah well, I needed the practice". She was feeling quite cocky at that moment. He smirked, "I'd recognize your voice any where, Akemi chan, un". Akemi smiled, pulled her hood off and sat down beside him. "When did you get so fixated on me, Deidara-kun?" she said jokingly.

"I commit to memory important people, un. I've got a death match with you, un " he said brightly. Sasori who was standing by, seemingly ignoring everything all together turned to Akemi " I recognize you as the leaf Shinobi we encountered about a year ago". Akemi blinked at him for a while. "That was you?" she said uncertainly. " Yeah, Sasori danna is a puppet master ,un. It's what he does." Akemi couldn't see Sasori roll his eyes but she was pretty sure he did. " Sure Deidara. Why don't you just disclose to her the top secret Akatsuki files". Deidara looked at Sasori, " we have top secret Akatsuki files, un?".

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Another week had passed since the meeting of Deidara and Sasori at the bar. Akemi decided it was time to pamper herself a bit after all the hard ships. Taking out the lootings from the bar, she headed to a clothes shop. Now her desire to join the Akatsuki had grown and she had doubled her own training. She would make it to Akatsuki no matter what. She bought a black sleeveless top with a red zipper. She had black gloves and red elbow-guards . She also had black shorts and black sandals. Yep, she was going with the Akatsuki colors. She even put red and black streaks in her hair.

As she continued her journey that night she spotted a large boulder in the way. Smiling ,she drew her fist back and threw a punch at it shattering it to pieces. She was content. Her medical skills along with her fighting skills improved. As she looked in the lake at her reflection, though she hated to admit it, she looked just like her mother. The slug Sannin , Tsunade, the fifth Hokage .

Here's to chapter 2. Reviews please!. I'm sorry to say however that now school has started again and I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to update. Maybe next week. I'll see. Reviews please!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto. Just Akemi and Cory, Tatsumi and Scythe and a few other OCs

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

Two days later, Akemi found a deserted pat. The rocks were jagged and fierce but that meant it was the lesser used path. Why? 'So, towns folk think this place is haunted?'. Akemi strolled on the path, ignoring the rocks that seemed to leer at her from the shadows. Akemi wasn't very superstitious, nor one to scare easily. A path like this was more like stares in a brightly lit town square. Not scary at all.

As she walked, Akemi noticed some where up a head a band of wanderers. They were huddled together and she made out something that looked like a cart. Curiosity was one of her bad points as it always seemed to get the better of her. Smiling deviously, she poofed away, ninja style, and landed on the crags above the party. She made out ten men, and two women, no, girls. They looked a bit older than her. One with grayish blue eyes and white hair, another with red hair and green eyes. "You two" one man said "will be useful to taking down the Akatsuki. The red head looked unfazed " oh, don't flatter your self". She received a bash on her cheek as she was thrown back.

" Hey, don't kill her yet, Daso" the woman said. Seeing her better, Akemi saw she had aqua blue hair, with yellow streaks. She absent mindedly fingered with her own hair. Daso spat at the fallen girl and said "because of him, the true Amekage has been killed. He should be destroyed!". The red head looked up at the large man " it's not our fault! Why have we been dragged into this". The woman stopped to look down on her, " you see, you are precious to the dictator . Even the towns folk love you to much. If we were to threaten your lives, well, the towns people might even rebel against the Akatsuki, isn't that right, Aka?". The white haired girl whimpered nearby. Aka looked at her "It's ok, Shiro, I'm sure Pein will get us out of this fix". Daso roughly pulled the red head to her feet and pushed her forward. "Yeah, I know, Tanya, but it won't matter if we only return one".

The gears in Akemi's head set to work. Tanya, Daso, Aka, Shiro Pein. Three of those names meant nothing to her, but one. Why, if she could return these girls to the Akatsuki…all the better. She had decided, she would try to save the girls, but not before she had her fun. She jumped of the crag and landed gently on a rock just out of sight. She reached into her kunai holster. Back in Konoha, she was known for using tools to there maximum capacity. Heck, she could kill with a spoon. She was also rumored to have a marching band in her closet though…

The flute was small and silver, it was quite plain really, but…it did look stunning when bathed in moon light. She put the flute to her lips. The mountain was quiet that night. It was all to her liking. She blew on the flute.

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"What was that sound?" a man asked. "What sound, I didn't hear anything". "That sound, just now! It sounds like a…like a flute?". The other man arched an eyebrow "Are you crazy? What flute-" the man stopped in mid sentence. With out realizing it, suddenly…he did hear a flute. It was shrill and high and the notes were strung together in an eerie trill. Little by little the whole party stopped, all hearing the trill.

"What do you think it is?" Daso asked the woman. She rolled her eyes " make a guess. Probably someone trying to scare the men" she gestured to the shivering men, suddenly packed together tighter than a pack of sardines. "They say this place is haunted…" one whispered. She shook her head in disbelief. The trilling stopped. A voice echoed around the mountain " you should listen to your men, Tanya…"

End of chapter three. Of course, you might have realized that Akemi can be pretty nasty. Still, it's fun writing a sadistic character! Reviews ,reviews please! ( Oh, and sorry if it's a little short, but no reviews, no motivation . So send some!


	4. Sky and Earth

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto. Just Akemi and Cory, Tatsumi and Scythe and a few other OCs

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

Deciding she would make the most of the rumors of a haunted mountain. She fastened her black cloak all the way up and used a Genjutsu on her self and her surroundings. She gave herself black mascara, running down her face as if she had been crying, she sharpened her teeth and nails as well as grew her hair so it messily clung to her figure. Mist had closed in around the mountain and every note of her shrill flute rung long and hard on the mountain.

She looked at her toys, she picked out a man in the middle. He would go first. She made a mental note to leave Tanya for last. As for the two girls, she wouldn't bother to tell them she was on their side till she was finished with her splendid design. She was curious to see how long before they would pee in their pants.

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"Look, over there!" a man with a bandana pointed at Akemi. She had sat herself in the middle of the path on a large boulder. As she sat cross legged, she lazily twiddled the flute in her long, slender fingers. The air had suddenly become very cold and every one could see their own breath. Every one except Akemi though, she wanted them to believe she was not off this world. She had had a friend in her unit. Rinn, she was an actual shaman and used ghosts as her tools. Akemi knew the drill.

" Who are you to walk this path, bold as you are" she said in her usual voice adding ice to each word. The men quivered before her, some where to the back, Tanya eyed her with growing suspicion. . Akemi looked up, exposing her neck, yet confident her jutsu would hold. "Hn, a red moon tonight… When the moon rises in full and twilight befalls the sky, the spirits dance and play, and all the trespassers die…" she chanted.

Tanya smirked " there is no such thing as ghosts, if that's what your imposing, traveler. The dead stay dead, six feet under". Akemi hung her head a little but not enough to conceal her smile "how little you know, you speak with impertinence…though you are right to guess I'm living…I'm still your demon". With out a word Akemi blurred out of existence, she dropped the genjutsu completely, threw her coat to the side and began her little blood feast. Reappearing before an unlucky man in the middle, she slit his throat and headed to another victim. Her nails had now reached the length of a foot and quickly stabbed another man.

In one fluid motion, she dropped to her knees and a razor ninja wire took the lives of three men. Her fingers glowed green and much to the men's surprise and horror, her hands went through one mans chest. As she felt inside for an organ the man's face contorted in a silent scream. With a small blast of chakra , she disabled his heart and he slumped to the ground. She threw a kunai at a nearby man and he dodged it. It hit a nearby rock. He whipped out three shuriken but was oblivious to the explosion tag, rapidly activating. It exploded and the man was sent plummeting of the edge of the cliff. His voice echoing around and around.

Finally one last man fell back ward on his butt and backed away staring at Akemi with fear in his eyes. He was young, probably only sixteen. His hitai te still glistened , suggesting lack of missions. " Please, don't hurt me. P-please have m-m-mercy!". Akemi looked down at him, regret in his eyes. She wasn't heartless, she was a shinobi. Pain and death was right up her alley. "I'm sorry but the only mercy a shinobi can afford is a quick and painless death" she extended her index and middle finger and placed it on his forehead. It glowed white for a fraction of a second and he slowly closed his eyes, all fear and pain lost. He slumped against the wall, peaceful, like he was only sleeping.

Akemi shifted her eyes away as her usually soft, brown eyes, hardened like steel. She grinned maniacally. Daso's face was hard and he flexed his weapons around his weapon, an axe. Tanya however, looked somewhat amused. She clapped her hands. "I really must say, you are an entertaining child. I'll miss you, I really will…Daso" she snapped her fingers. The ape like man grinned and moved towards Akemi, Tanya stood, parallel, right behind him. Aka and Shiro pulled themselves away from the two. Her hands formed hand signs and without warning, Daso swung his axe down hard. In unison they shouted " Double jutsu, heaven and earth!".

The ground before Akemi came at her like some sort of being, the wind came in gushes and came upon Akemi. She didn't move, she simply covered her face with her hands. The earth came up and banged into her sending her flying in the air, the wind came forth and cut many a slices in her skin. She landed back on the ground, on her feet and, stone faced. The earth jutsu reminded her off a battle during the Chunin exams between Naruto Uzamaki and Neji Hyuuga. The wind scythes were unmistaken ably alike to the wind attacks of Temari no Subako and her other friend, Kiniko Hatake. From what she had determined she had a hunch, and her hunch was proven right when a heavy hand broke out from the earth and clasped her ankle tightly. She saw Daso's head peek from the ground.

A bit further off, Tanya was making hand signs. "Wind style jutsu, Violent Gale!". A spear of wind shot out at Akemi, she watched as it blew away rocks around them, flattening the battle field. " Substitution jutsu!" here was one of her most used move. It was basic, simple but not many actually used. She poofed away and in her place, Tanya stood, fear plastered on her face. " Let go, Daso!" too late, she was sliced by her own technique.

The wind rushed threw her, coming out from her other side, splattering blood all around. "TANYA "Daso jumped out from the earth to examine his fallen comrade. " Ack ,she's. So. Strong. Like on of…them" she spat out blood "Daso, complete the mission …for Amekagure…for me" she fell silent, her eyes glazed looked up at the sky, not seeing the beautiful stars.

Daso stared at her corpse blankly. "Tanya…" he mumbled. He pulled himself up clutching his axe loosely. What would he do now?

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Akemi did not react. Did not laugh, or gloat, or cackle. Death, she knew what it was. She knew it was hard. "There is no point. You're going to die now. I analyzed your attacks. You can not function well without the other" she said in a monotone. "Monsters like you don't understand what…what we're fighting for! The Akatsuki, they want to take over the world, through war! The economic stability will collapse! Villages will perish, people will die, innocent people! You don't understand!". Akemi was still, a thoughtful look on her face. "No…I don't understand. All I know is…everything will be alright" the broken man looked at the blonde adolescent "it's not your fault, you don't have to fight for the world, fight for yourself. For what you believe in, for who you care for. The end is also a beginning…everything…will be alright".

Daso's face was impassive "I fought for what I believe in all my life, and I'll die for what I'm fighting for!" he ran at her, axe raised, not a trace of hate in his face, just a soothed calm. Akemi struck him at the last minute. Her glowing hand, punctured his heart. He stopped in surprise to cough up blood. With a mighty push, Akemi tossed him back, were he slid on the rocky surface until , finally he came to a stop, next to Tanya. "I ..fought…for what I believed in…I can rest…knowing…that".

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Aka and Shiro, walked by her side, until they reached a gate of Amekagure. "Again, thanks a lot" Aka said, shaking her hand. "Ye-yes you saved us" Shiro said shyly. "It's no problem, really" Akemi said smiling. "You sure you don't want to meet Pein yet?" Aka asked. Akemi shook her head "No. I don't know what, but I feel there is something I still need to do". Aka shrugged "fine then, see you sometime".

Akemi watched them walk into the village until they became nothing more than little figures. Akemi reached into her cloak and pulled out a scroll. She unfolded it and stared at the characters on it. 'Tanya of the sky, Daso of the Earth. They would have made a nice couple. Maybe when Akatsuki takes over and there is peace, I can ask Rinn to resurrect them…but for now…Oh, well, I guess I'll just do what I can'.

She slid her hand once more in her cloak pocket and with drew a photo she had taken from Daso before she buried them. It was old and yellowing. She looked at the people. It was a genin team and their sensei. She recognized the jonin as the former Amekage . Tanya had Daso in a head lock and there was a shy looking boy to the side with brown hair and green eyes holding up two fingers. 'They sure looked happy' she thought.

She recalled her old team and reached in to pluck out another photo. It was a group of six that had been split in two. There sensei, Rangiko stood in the middle of the photo, her lush orange hair, gleaming. The silver haired Kiniko was in the front, grinning like mad and her red headed Uchiha friend, Mayuri as well as the oldest, the lime haired Cory, were obviously shouting at Akemi who had a mischievous smile. The blue haired Rinn head a tranquil look on her face as she smiled with lidded eyes. The raven haired Kaoru wore a sort of satisfied smirk as she leaned against the tree. All in all they were an interesting group.

Akemi pocketed the photos and scroll and pivoted on her heel as she walked away from the gate. Despite the happy tune she whistled her heart was feeling heavy. If she joined the Akatsuki, would she one day, like Tanya and Daso…have to kill her friends?

End of chapter four. This was a longer chapter as you may have noticed and my fingers are about to fall off! ( Giggle's insanely) I do hope you enjoyed it! Please review! The fact that I got a review gave me new fighting, Morale Hoorah! This story will live…!for now ( creepily disappears into the shadows.)


	5. Golden eyed girl

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto. Just Akemi and Cory, Tatsumi and Scythe and a few other OCs

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

The death of Tanya and Daso haunted her more than anyone she had ever killed. It loomed over her, making her remember again and again the last words spoken between the two, the mysterious boy in the photo and her own friends whom she had deserted.

Last she heard of them, Rinn, had become a Chunin. Kiniko had finally made amends with Kakashi, Nina or should she say Kaoru had become more open and fixed things with her past in Suna. Mayuri had lost her last bit of family, Sasuke Uchiha to Orochimaru and as for Cory? The last thing she saw of the poison specialist was during her betrayal at the Sasuke retrieval mission. Now she had left Konoha, making her Konoha's sixth missing nin after Orochimaru, Uchiha Itachi, Kabuto, Cory and Uchiha Sasuke.

She sighed as she wandered about the borders of Ame. It was her eighth day since she dropped of Aka and Shiro at Ame and so far, nothing was happening. 'Tsunade would be bossing Shizune for Sake now…' she shook her head, pushing away thoughts of her mother. She had left just when she and Tsunade had reached some sort of understanding yet it was not enough to keep her there. One, Tsunade had abandoned her and that was not something she would forgive easily. Two, she was still too weak to protect those she cared for. Three Konoha itself was too weak and was probably a lost cause. Four, she hated Orochimaru with her guts and would get back at him for attacking Konoha. Five she had something to do at Akatsuki.

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A small, yellow and black python, slithered away from the approaching blonde and back to it's mistress. As a scouting summon, it had little to do with the blonde, it only needed to report what it saw. It found it's mistress sitting on a rock in the middle of the forest . The pink haired, golden eyed, fifteen year old was polishing her kunai and poison tipped needles. A scratched Oto hitai-te was tied loosely around her neck and her oink hair was much unlike Sakura Haruno's. Sakura's was a soft, baby pink color while Tatsumi, had a darker, more pointed shade of pink. Her hair reached, a few inches below her shoulder. She wore the usual Oto nin cloths, the color of light beige, however without the giant purple ribbon. Instead she had a long blood red sash, tied around her waist which touched the ground. Some people have different tastes " Tatsssumi, there isss a leaf kunoichi right ahead of usss with a ssscratched hitai-te". The ex Oto nin didn't look up, "describe her."

" Blonde, brown eyesss, black and red attire, black travelling cloak and lotsss of chakra. Presssumably a medic nin with offensssive medical ssskillsss. Fourteen or fifteen yearsss of age. Probably a genin" Tatsumi held up a needle to the light and admired it's gleam. "That'll be all. Dismissed" the python disappeared in a poof of smoke. Tatsumi, packed up her things, her kunai in it's holster, her needles, concealed in various places. Oto nin were famous for sound and poison specialties.

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The blonde ex Konoha nin saw the first person she had seen in eight days. It was a young girl, with pink hair and cold golden eyes, a missing nin like herself. "I remember you, you were one of Orochimaru's henchmen during the attack during the Chunin exams and the Sasuke retrieval mission. What do you want?" Akemi asked crudely. "I'm not going to fight you if that's what you mean. Did you…leave Konoha because you were in danger or because you wanted to?" replied the golden eyed girl. "That's not really your concern. I won't tell you about myself, till you say something about yourself. Tatsumi sighed, she had never been good at conversation "My name is Tatsumi, and I left Oto of my own accord because I didn't see eye to eye with it's kage".

Akemi nodded, she was getting somewhere "I'm Akemi, I left Konoha because I needed more strength…and I want to punch Orochimaru's face in, and I can't do that if I stay in Konoha". Tatsumi cocked her head , a wry smile gracing her lips "Orochimaru, is one unpopular guy, even with his…possibly closest subordinates". Akemi narrowed her eyes, Tatsumi's hints were more than enough to tell her what she was about to suggest.

"Why don't we team up? The two of us. I mean, we both hate Orochimaru, what more is important?" Tatsumi said, smiling. Akemi shook her head "look, this is a partnership, not an Orochimaru bashing club". Tatsumi let her smile fall, her charming demeanor gone "fine…truth is I don't really know what to do now…but crushing Orochimaru is definitely some where on my to do list". Akemi smirked, she had revealed her true colors, now to further question her " why exactly did you leave Oto?". Tatsumi looked hesitant, and there was an air of caution around her.

Akemi sat on a log and motioning, Tatsumi to sit beside her, and said " come on, you can trust me. It's just missing nin here". After studying Akemi shortly, and concluding that she could over power her if she were to try something, she sat beside her. "So, what's your story?" Akemi asked brightly. Tatsumi closed one eye, the other looked at her " you've heard that Orochimaru created many forbidden experiments?" "Uh huh, go on" " …well, technically…I'm his daughter". Akemi looked taken aback " Wha-huh?!" that meant she was fraternizing with kin of the true enemy. Seeing her reaction, Tatsumi went on. 'Might as well. If she betrays me , I'll just kill her'. "He created me as one of his experiments by making me from scratch".

"He collected and combined genes from himself and several people including, Anko Mitashori, his student ,Tsurugi Misumi, his contortionist spy during the Chunin exams as well as Kabuto and Cory" Akemi flinched . "He took parts from other people, skills and such, and put them all together into what resulted as me". Akemi swallowed, no wonder she felt so hostile about those eyes of gold. She found herself wondering how Tatsumi felt, being created, perfect, never being able to truly be real, alive, because she was just a rag doll made from the finest cloth of all sorts of strangers.

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Akemi looked some what shaken to her after realizing her secret. "Unfortunately, to daddy dearest's dismay, there were parts of people he never meant to add. For example, Anko Mitashori's pig headedness as well as her hate towards him. Because of this, he was very hard on me, he tried his best to get rid of my…out look on things. As you can see I didn't exactly go as planned" she ended, gesturing to her scratched hitai te.

"So…what are you going to-" she was cut of by a small red and black python, appearing out of no where and coiling itself around Tatsumi's wrist. "Tatsssumi sssama, we have been followed by your fathersss lackiesss" it poofed out of existence. "Shit" Tatsumi mumbled before jumping in the trees and dragging Akemi along with her. "I never took you for one who would openly curse, Tatsumi. I always thought you were such a daddy's girl" Akemi teased. "Shut up".

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"Tsk, stupid Oto trackers. They. Are. Annoying" she said the last three words with every tree she jumped. "Oi, aren't you going to fight them?" Akemi asked, bringing in her rear. "Yeah. Just in a better location, I'm pretty sure Orochimaru didn't send pansies after me. These guys have been trained for this mission". "So, they're going to drag you back to Sound?" Akemi asked. A kunai embedded itself, a few inches away from Tatsumi's face, in a tree. "No, they're going to kill me on sight. Now that Orochimaru has got his new toy, Sasuke, he won't need me any more. Nothing beats Sharingan". "He's…going to kill you?" this was another demonstration on how weak Konoha was to show such mercy to traitors. This was why she had to become stronger.

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Tatsumi turned in mid air and, careful not to hit Akemi, spat out two poison needles at the enemy. An Oto nin, clad in purple fell to the ground, clutching his left arm and leg. Akemi's eyes widened as she recognized one of Cory's techniques.

_Flash back_

_As they leapt through the forest of death, avoiding they're pursuers, Kiniko, faced Cory "this isn't working we have to lose them!" . Cory turned in mid air and spat four needles at the waterfall nin following them . Three met their mark and one waterfall nin fell howling at the floor below. "Ok! We split up, Kiniko and Akemi take left, I'll take right. GO!"._

_End of flashback_

"Hey, are you ok?" Tatsumi said to Akemi, snapping her out of her memories. "I'm fine, just worry about your own neck" she snapped. Tatsumi shrugged "Ok, here is a good spot. We attack as soon as we get passed that boulder". Akemi nodded in understanding. The boulder flashed in her peripheral view, time to deal some damage.

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Tatsumi appeared, fast as lightning, above the lead Oto nin. He looked on in shock, He didn't even have time to protect himself. Her arm, clutching a kunai, extended impossibly like an elastic band and quickly covered the distance between her and her mark. She thrust the kunai "Die!".

To be continued.

Ok, how was that for chapter five, eh? New Oc. I hope you enjoyed it, it really took me days trying to figure out Tatsumi's character so, there. Two daughters of Sannins! Reviews please!


	6. Know your Ally

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto

Disclaimers note, I don't own Naruto. Just Akemi and Cory, Tatsumi and Scythe and a few other OCs

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

The blond and pink haired ninja stood back to back, covered in blood and panting slightly. Three ninja lay sprawled on the floor, carelessly tossed by Tatsumi's snake had technique and ruthlessly broken by Akemi's punches. Aside from the swiftness of the Oto nins , they weren't much of a problem. Dodge and hit, dodge and hit, dodge and hit…it was a continuous cycle of exchanges in blows that had already managed to bore the renegade ninja, two minutes after the battle had started.

Tatsumi, crouched low to the ground in a firm horse stance and Akemi drew her fist back, ready to crush the last Oto nin standing. She wasn't the naïve little distribution nin she used to be, she was the first Hokage's great grand daughter, a force to reckon with. Tatsumi thrust her snake fang fist, remaining in her horse stance, her arm snaking through branches and leaves like water. The Oto nin jumped back, reaching a safe distance of thirty feet away from Tatsumi, her arm stopped short, and knowing she had reached her limit, let her arm return to it's original length.

A crinkle in her brows signified her mind calculating another route to success. 'Huh?' a dash of yellow briefly appeared in the back ground, by an old Oak tree. She let her self sink down into sitting position, her face cupped in her hands , eyes closed. 'This should be over soon'.

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The Oto nin, let out a sigh of relief from beneath his mask, and started contemplating a plan to do the ex-Oto nin in, before he realized the fiery blonde was no longer beside Tatsumi. He spun around in time to see Akemi punch the ground with such a force that it sent cracks rippling through the forest floor, yet heading in a strait line of destruction towards him. Wham! A wave of Earth knocked away the last retriever as he crumpled down.

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Akemi relaxed her stance, she straightened up and casually, folded her arms behind her head. "You didn't need my help back there" she said to the pink haired ex-Oto nin. Silence. "I really don't see, why you didn't just knock them all down in one go". Silence . "It should have been a piece of cake for you". Silence again. Akemi raised an eyebrow. "Ey! Did you fall asleep or something?!" she shouted at Tatsumi's relaxed form. Without opening her eyes she said "it would have been easy as peanut. I just wanted to see if it would have been equally as easy for you".

Akemi dropped her hands "so you weren't so sure when you asked me to join you". Tatsumi's eyes slowly opened. "Not really. No. I just needed to make sure". She stood up and brushed dirt of her cloths " and now I am". Akemi smiled sadistically "you know I didn't say 'yes'". Tatsumi, turned to her " true ,but you didn't say 'no' either". 'This girl's good' "Yeah well, I may say 'yes', I may say 'no', fifty-fifty". Tatsumi smiled wryly, her eyes hooded and bored looking "yes, fifty-fifty". 'Just like the life and death rate, you will encounter, fifty-fifty'.

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Akemi and Tatsumi sat across a camp fire, and Tatsumi was being ticked out of her head by Akemi's singing. It wasn't that she sounded bad it was just that… "one thousand, ninety eight bottles of milk on the wall ,one thousand, ninety eight bottles of milk, you take one down, pass it around, one thousand, ninety eight bottles of m-!" Tatsumi through a piece of dead, uncooked fish at Akemi who met it head on. "Ow! eew! Meannie!". "Dumb blonde". "Snake girl!". "Trap obsessed freak". "Evil!". "Thank you."

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Akemi scowled at the older girl. She was just so…annoying…and witty…and Orochimaru's rag doll. Oh, wait, scratch the last part. It wasn't her fault. She didn't exactly choose to be brought into this world in a test tube in some dark lair.

"Whatever, I'm going to sleep". She curled up in her sleeping bag and shut her eyes. She didn't exactly trust the older girl but she put six traps around her bed. There was no way the other could get through without her knowing it. No way…and with that thought she drifted to sleep.

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Tatsumi looked at the sleeping form of her supposedly traveling companion, heaving up and down silently. She wrinkled her brows as she felt a sudden surge of unexpected emotion. A feeling of sadism and a tint of blood lust, covered with a cheery if not psychotic emotion. Her golden eyes, turned into a chocolate brown.

She clutched her head "Anko Mitashori, get out of my head, damn it…" as if hearing her, the untimely emotions backed down into her system and her eyes returned to a golden color. A quick memory that didn't belong to her flashed for a second in her mind. _Thirteen year old Anko, sprawled on the floor, clutching her arm as her newly acquired cursed seal took over, looking at her departing sensei, the third Sannin._ Tatsumi breathed out. Anko was probably the next biggest part of her after Orochimaru which is why it was her memories, her emotions and her personality that took over the most.

Regaining her composition, she lay down, beside the fire. She made a mental note to tell Akemi about her…situation in full detail the next morning. She was her ally, her only ally for the time being, she had a right to know. Her golden eyes were illuminated by the dancing fire's glow as she watched it dance to the moon. It was like this that she fell asleep.

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Akemi yawned and stretched, as she rubbed the star dust out of her eyes. "Good morning" a voice from her left said. It was the pink haired girl from yesterday…the one who through a fish at her the night before. She did a double take "Tatsumi…your eyes…they're brown". Sure enough it was a pair of chocolate colored eyes that peered out of Tatsumi's face. "Hn…?Oh, yeah, my eyes they do that sometimes". Akemi blinked there was something different about Tatsumi. Not just her eyes but the way she acted was different from last night.

"I don't understand, please elaborate". Tatsumi leaned against the tree "Ok, since we're going to be traveling companions, it's time you knew things about me. Ok, first of all, you remember how I told you the happy tale of how I came to be?". Akemi nodded. "Good, well, aside from getting cells and body parts and putting them in me, there's a side effect. I may be able to put different cells in my whenever I want to since my form is still unstable, however, with every new entity I absorb, there is something other than their abilities that comes with them."

Akemi leaned back, trying to soak it in ."Their memories. Their experiences, their personalities. All of it, merged into one. Now we arrive to the part, why my eyes change color. Those are the eyes of people I've absorbed of off. Normally, when I'm awake they don't take over with out my say so, but when I'm asleep…it's different. Also, another problem is I can only use their techniques for so long. Some techniques, I can only do once, some on a regular basis. It depends on how long I can hold out. The longest battle I've ever had was five hours and thirty-seven seconds. After that, total shut down. I can be out for days, weeks…I might not even wake up". Akemi swallowed, watching Tatsumi's eyes ripple back into the color of gold. "I have to be very careful, very precise and I have to stick to my limits. It's very risky to use an unfamiliar persona. Things can become very bad".

End of this chapter! Hope you enjoyed it! Review please!


	7. A genin team in danger

"speech"

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

Tatsumi stood on top of a branch, shading her eyes against the sun's glare. Her golden eyes scanned the perimeter, noting a strange rock formation, before the voice of her partner distracted her. "Hurry up! What takes so long to look over some parts of Earth" she shouted up at the Oto ninja. Tatsumi frowned and seriously considered breaking the branch Akemi stood on, sending her plummeting to the ground, and leaving her in peace.

XXXXXXXXXXX

She took a deep breath "never mind, let's go" and she hopped off the branch. Continuing on , was their agenda. They were aiming to make it to Ame before, the week ended, but, as expected from a story like this, something got in their way.

Tatsumi put a finger to her lips, signaling the loud blonde to be quiet. She immediately recognized the gesture and muffled any sounds her steps would make. With a quick nod to each other, they jumped away into the forest, following the sounds. They heard a crack and a shrill, shriek. They quickened they're pace, moving in towards the sound, yet not once rustling a single leaf.

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Akemi saw a small pool of blood in her peripheral view, her brown eyes, darted to the following drips that emerged from it. She made a gesture to Tatsumi, pointing from herself to the pool of blood, then making a walking motion with her index and middle finger. Tatsumi rolled her eyes, yet waved her hand to the trees before leaping up and away once more .Not bothering to frown at Tatsumi's eye roll, Akemi followed to trail of blood. She passed trees marked with blood and saw the pools of red getting larger.

Finally she stopped when she spotted a figure, hunched up and using a tree for balance.

Her medical instincts took immediate effect and she rushed over to the figure. It was a twelve year old boy with, tan skin, brown , pointy hair and violet eyes, he wore a kunai holster and a shuriken pouch, along with a hitai-te around his head with some sort of crescent shape. He was obviously a genin, she just didn't know of what village.

As she rushed over to the genin, her hands glowed green. The genin gazed at her with bleary eyes "Takato…?" he muttered. Akemi didn't say a word she just lay him down and rested her palms on his chest. He cringed, and clenched his teeth, digging his nails into his palms. Akemi ignored his signs of pain and forced healing chakra into his system. Closing her eyes, the cuts on his body began to heal. A gaping hole in his stomach began to close.

'Stop, stop, stop bleeding!' she thought desperately, filling the wound with her chakra, trying to close it. Finally, the wound closed completely and the pained genin's heart rate slowed. His pants slowed to even breaths. Meanwhile, Akemi sat beside him, on the brink of unconsciousness. As she slumped beside him, she heard cracks behind her and felt a hand roughly grab her hair and pull her head back, putting a kunai to her exposed neck. "I've caught one! She's right here! I found Kira too!" a voice emerged from her captor. She began too panic. She was a missing nin after all, that was bad news for anyone.

"Steady, Takato, don't you dare hurt her before we know she's an enemy" said a deep rich voice behind her. "She's armed" the captor replied "she could have killed him right now, had we not stopped her". A broad man, with brown eyes and even darker skin came in her vision "true but if I remember correctly, Kira was heavily wounded with cuts all over him. Now I don't see a single incision. Now why might that be?".

The kunai was removed from her neck by the dark man, and her captor reluctantly released his hold on her hair. Now getting a better look at the boy, she saw that he

, too had platinum hair, and brown eyes, but of a chestnut color. Because of her patient's bleary vision, no wonder he mistook her for him. The dark man, lowered himself beside her "Your a healer" he said more of a statement than a question. The blonde boy, she learned to be Takato, ignored her now, and instead brought his attention to his fellow genin who was now stirring.

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Purple eyes stared open at the faces around him. They moved from the unfamiliar face of a blonde girl, to the dark one of his sensei, to the beaming one of his best friend's. "Good aim, eh, Kira? You couldn't hit the enemy even when he was standing still. Heck, I would have been worried if you were aiming for the guy next to me" the blonde said, good-heartedly. The brown haired genin smiled weakly "my arm was broken, what did you expect, big mouth?". For a brief moment she saw a connection of sarcasm between them, much like the one she had seen between, two leaf genin, an Uchiha and an Uzamaki, a year ago…

"Who's the pretty girl?" Kira asked, now noticing Akemi, who blushed a little. This time the dark man spoke up "she's your benefactor, this lass here saved your life". Kira smiled "well, aren't I a lucky guy?". Takato rolled his eyes "say that when there isn't blood all over your cloths, now get up, Mr. Mighty, we have to go find Nina, right Oboju sensei?".

Oboju's face turned grim, "quite right. Let's go, you too, lassie, we could use a healer". Akemi was taken aback "wait, wait. You trust me? Why?". Takato looked at her like she was retarded "well, one, you healed Kira. Two, our enemy is sound. Nobody likes sound, so your practically our best buddy". Akemi planted her hands on her hips "are you sure you're ninjas? You're way too trusting to be ninjas" the rest of what she said was cut off, because next came an ear piercing scream.

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Tatsumi, roughly grabbed a brunette, twelve year old kunoichi by the waist as she avoided several deadly, sharp projectiles. The silly girl had frozen up at the sight of Oto nin, so Tatsumi was now carrying the terrified kunoichi away from danger, all the while sending her own poison tipped needles out at the enemy .A kunai passed dangerously close to the brunette who let out a little squeak before paling considerably. Tatsumi rolled her eyes for the like, hundredth time that day.

She quickly dropped the girl behind a large boulder, before shielding herself with it. She reached into her blouse and with drew a container needle. There was only an ounce of red liquid sloshing in there but it was enough. She exhaled slowly before jumping out into the open and stabbing the needle in her own blood vessels.

Unseen to the naked eye, cells, accumulated, sending themselves to her brain. She shivered but in a flash of visions and memories, she quickly formed hand signs. Taking in a deep breath, she released it and out came a stream of flames "Fire style jutsu, Fire ball!". The two nearest Oto nin howled in pain as they were engulfed by flames. Tatsumi fell to the floor, clutching her stomach and coughing. She had used Sasuke Uchiha's blood in order to execute the fire ball jutsu…and she paid the price. It was just not her element and her body wasn't adept to it. Still it was a good technique, effective and practical. She replaced the empty glass needle in her shirt and withdrew another needle labeled 'Kabuto Yushuki'. She quickly regenerated her cells, stopping her internal bleeding. Thank god, she and Kabuto got along otherwise the cells might try to take over her body. She made a mental note to permanently add Kabuto to her system, alongside, Kari, the poison mistress, and, whether she liked it or not, Orochimaru and Anko Mitashori.

She carelessly, swiped two kunai away and traced the weapon's projectory. She followed it to it's owner, and found one last Oto nin, staring at her defiantly. Tatsumi gave a small smirk, her golden eyes shimmering , mercilessly. This ninja was Kin's boy friend in the past. He had just been unluckily ( or should I say luckily) not chosen for Orochimaru's, 'Crush Konoha' plan. Tatsumi licked her upper lip "Tell Kin, Zaku and Dosu I said 'hi'". His face twisted in anger "tell them yourself!" and he launched at her kunai in hand.

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Takato, Kira , Oboju and Akemi arrived to find, Tatsumi facing the last Oto nin. "Two left! We can take them!" Kira said, confidently. "Hold up, a sec, you can't kill them both, one of them is my partner!" Akemi said in alarm. Kira blinked "Which one…?". "The girl" Oboju answered "her hitai-te is scratched, she's a missing nin, too". Takato looked at Akemi "seriously, you missing nin are chummy".

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Five minutes later, the last Oto shinobi fell, five kunai in his back, dead on the floor. Only then did Oboju let Takato rush over to the brunette "Nina! Are you ok? Are you hurt? Anything broken…?". She smiled apologetically at him "Yes Takato, I'm fine. Sorry if you were worried".

Akemi had already made her way to Tatsumi's side. She whispered "what are Orochimaru's lackies doing here?". "Why are you asking me? Ask them." Tatsumi answered pointing at the genin team. Akemi cleared her throat. "So, um, where are we?".

Oboju answered warmly "why, you're in Tsukikagure, village hidden in the moon".

Aha! There goes chapter seven. Now, I'll try a new method. I won't update till I receive 10 reviews in total, so reviews please!


	8. Tsuki, Wolf, Scorpion

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

"Tsukikagure?" Akemi inquired "didn't you used to be named Getsukagure?". "Ahhh…you are well informed. Yes that used to be our name, but the village leader was recently changed and he decided 'Tsukikagure' would be a better name" Oboju answered heartily. Tatsumi had hung back while Akemi and the genin team were up in front, talking and exchanging stories. Tatsumi looked up as they passed a stone archway looming above their heads. She heard the bustle of people and took this as a cue that they had reached the village.

A man came towards them " Oboju, nice to see you back ,we thought you had a run in with the- Oboju behind you!" he quickly through a kunai. Tatsumi deflected it with senbon ,the kunai twirled in the air before it thumped into the ground. So quick that she didn't notice, moon shinobi emerged from the shadows cast by the huge rocks, encircling her in a deadly wall of glittering kunai. They drew their arms back, ready to strike when "Hey, it's ok! Put your weapons down!". The men around her were stunned , and quickly returned their weapons to their places. "It's Oslak!" "Leader Oslak!". "Sir, there are Oto nin every where!". "Settle down, settle down every one! It appears you have given our guest a bit of a hassle" the mysterious Oslak said, his spiky dark red hair, leaning to the side and a tattoo of a lion on his face, glistening.

The men turned their heads to Tatsumi. "An Oto nin, a guest?". "Are we talking about the same person?". "Has Oslak been drinking again?". "Oh, wait" one of them said "I see it now. Can't you see it? The little slash on her forehead protector". They focused their attention on the strip of metal around her neck. "Oh yeah!". "Ok, I see it". "It's right there". "It's a neat little slash, isn't it? I mean look at it. She got it so straight!"."So she's a missing nin. In that case she's perfectly welcome here" the one who had htrown the first kunai at her said, smilling apologetically. That's when she noticed a tattoo at the corner of his mouth that resembled an ox. Focusing her attention on each of the men in turn, she spotted various animal tattoos.A monkey here, a mouse there, a heron on an arm, a snake on a throat, a crane on one of the kunoichi, acat on a knee, and so on. She even saw a tattoo of some sort of eagle on Takato's forhead which she had missed because his unruly blonde bangs had covered it up. There was an otter, visibly seen on Kira's shin and a butterfly on Nina's one bare shoulder.

Oslak held up his hand in greeting. "Hey, how was the welcome?". Tatsumi straightened a little and replaced the kunai in her holster, "Charming. Your hospitality was simply appalling". The red head burst into peals of laughter "I like this one. The fist Oto nin I've ever seen with a sense of humor!". He gave her a pat on the back, she nearly choked. "Oh, sorry , I didn't think you were so fragile. Guess I don't know my streangth some times!".

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It was four days since their stay with Tsuki and as they sat around the fire, they realized how different their villages were from Tsuki. For one thing, their villages stayed in one place on the map. Tsuki was a travelling village, moving every moon or so which is where they got their name, since one month is included to one moon cycle, new moon quarter moon, half moon, full moon, then new moon again. In fact, the village itself just moved into the continent of the shinobi and adapted the shinobi way while preserving their own way. They always made small shelters or slept outside at night, and most of the time they hunted for food. Also with every kill, they made sure nothing went to waste. For example, they caught an elk. They would eat the meat , make cloths from the hide, save the antlers for medicine and use the hooves to make glue.

Another thing different about them was their respect for nature. They were extremely careful when cutting trees and always made sure it was absolutely necessary to do so. They were also very respectful to animals, never killing unless they needed to and making sure not to waste a thing. They also had a short ritual every night were they would group themselves for some reason and go to different ends of the camp. There they would leave strips of meat with some sort of prayer , then return to the camp. There didn't seem to be any particular time. They would just go off with their respective groups and return.

One night Akemi sat beside Oslak, and Oboju. Kira was with his parents and Nina was doing the nightly ritual. Takato and Tatsumi were just a little away from them. "Oslak…" Akemi started. "Hmm? He took a bite out of meat. "Why do the villagers do that ritual thing every night where they leave food around camp? And how are they grouped, the people?". He took another bite of meat "I see you noticed that. Well about the meat, they are giving it to the great beast spirits because that's our way of thanking them for sending prey and watching over us". "Who are they great beast spirits?". Oslak finished the meat. "Well, they are the guardians of every type of animal and they are guardians of the humans who fall under their protection as well". "How do you know if they are under their protection?" she continued. This time Oboju spoke up "when a person is born there are two rituals he under goes. One is for finding out his element, so we know what jutsus to teach him, and the other is finding out his beast guardian".

Akemi was about to open her mouth but Tatsumi got ahead of her "what sort of ritual?". "We get our mage, Edna" he pointed at a small lady with blonde hair pushed back "to do the ritual for us. First she makes a fire, then she tosses in a leaf, a pebble, a flint of metal then pours water on it. Finally the steam will form to show an animal, then that animal will be tattooed on the infant". Akemi winced "doesn't that hurt?". "Edna is very good at what she does. The babies actually look surprisingly peaceful when it's done. So peaceful, it looks like their going to take a dump" the two men burst into merry laughter once again. Takato continued for them "There are several kinds of guardians, there are guardians like lions" he pointed at Oslak ",bears" he pointed at Oboju "and eagles" he unrolled his sleeve and showed the print of an eagle. "But there are also other stuff like monkeys, mantis's ,boars, deer, even a butterfly. That's Nina's guardian and she's the only one here with that guardian. That's why she's always alone when she does the ritual. I've got three others, two of them are Ospreys, one's a Bald Eagle, I'm a Golden Eagle but we're all eagles so we go together any way. Also there is a special type of jutsu which we, from Tsuki are special for. We can concentrate our chakra and form it into our gaurdians, either from pure energy or our element".

"I see…fascinating. I mean it" Tatsumi said as she rested her chin on her hands. "Akemi was bouncing up and down "That is so awesome! I wonder what my animal would be!". "Probably a parrot" Tatsumi said from her corner "you never shut up". Akemi pouted. "Every animal is equal. Just like every person is equal. Every life is equal. The animals, trees humans. We're all alive aren't we and we all have feelings, yes even the trees" Oslak said, smiling up at the stars. "Why did you decide to become shinobi, if that's your code?" Tatsumi asked. "There's nothing wrong, being a shinobi. We all have dreams, and sometimes bad things are done to get them. But good things can be done as well. Everything dies but it never truly disappears…" Oslak said. There was a moment as the three Tsuki shinobi looked up at the stars as if listening to them and hearing them say something. At that very moment Akemi felt very alone and left out and she inched closer to her older travelling companion, not wanting to be left out.

Suddenly Oslak smacked his palm, grinning madly. "I know! Let's make you honorary Tsuki members!". "Huh?" the outsiders said in unison.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Are you sure it's ok?" Akemi asked as she knelt before the fire, Oslak deciding she would go first. "Relax, it'll work even if you're no baby anymore!" he said reassuringly. She gulped and hold on to her new Tsuki head protector tighter. She saw Edna approach the fire, the glow, lighting her features remarkably.Edna dropped a leaf into the fire and Akemi saw the leaf catch fire and burn. She dropped the pebble, and it scorched, blackening. The flint was dropped next and it burnt an angry red . Akemi's eyes widened as Edna picked up the pail of water. She paused, looking into the chocolate brown eyes. Edna's deep blue eyes peered into Akemi's pools of chocolate as if trying to search her soul for something. She tipped the pail, pouring the contents into the flame. There was a sizzle, the fire stuttered and the steam rushed out of it's fiery prison. Akemi gasped as she saw in quick succession the memories of her life.The feeling of wind against her face, receiving her forehead protector, being assigned to her equip team, fighting the Ame nin, the tickle of Deidara's breath as he whispered to her,the chunin exams when she fought Lee for the first time, Orochimaru and his filthy snakes trying to destroy her home, the mission to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha, Kari slamming her bloddied body onto the rocks, the look of hurt in Tsunade's face when she left , Mayuri, Lee, Naruto and Hinata's attempts to bring her back, Tanya and Daso's graves ,staring into Tatsumi's golden eyes until finally she focused her eyes on the steam to see a wispy wolf hovering above her. It opened it's mouth to speak. "I have chosen you". She was alone suddenly in a void of wispy smoke, in a corner of her subconcious mind.No she was not alone, before her stood a wolf, silver and white in the non existent moon." From this day on, you have my protection" and it dissolved. She blinked and returned to the cheering of the villagers ringing in her ears. She felt Oslak grip her arm and lift up. "Starting this day, Akemi is under the protection of the great wolf and one of the Tsukikagure, she is one of us!". Again a cheer erupted and Akemi felt her face go warm.

Meanwhile Edna made a clone. The clone walked over to Akemi and led her to a corner. "Come, I'll give you your mark. Don't worry it won't hurt a bit!" she said sweetly. Now it was Tatsumi's turn.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It felt all strange to Tatsumi. She didn't even recall walking to the fire, but there she was. She couldn't feel it's warmth as she knelt before it, she couldn't here the noise of the village, she couldn't feel the cool night air, couldn't smell the smoke from the fire. She only saw the fire, the angry red fire. The vengeful fire. The hateful fire.The merciless fire. The unforgiving fire...fire..._"Aaagh!" she had screamed as the fired ashes were poured on her. She dropped onto her knees, the ashes burning into her cloths. "Tatsumi" Orochimaru's voice rang from the dark hall. "You don't feel pain. You can't feel pain. You won't felel pain. Pain means you are someone. But you, you are no one. You don't exist". The coal, still hot from the fire, fell at her feet, and she felt another wave of pain. "You own nothing. Not even that body of yours. Nothing. How can you own anything if you don't exist? How can you exist when you are just parts of people.?Your skills, your personality, your golden eyes. They all belonged to someone else. You belong to me". A wave of fire, passed through her. And her scream echoed throughout the whole compound as she saw ire. Every where. Fire._

She opened her eyes. She heard the screams of people around her and so to her horror, that she was surrounded in a ring of fire. She could hear Oslak shouting "What happened? Whjat the blazes is going on?!". Edna's voice "Demons! They're trying to get a hold of her through the ritual!". "Tatsumi!!" she heard Akemi from the clearing. Akemi drew her fist back And hit the Earth with a force sending rocks at the fire but to no avail. The fire grew. She saw Kira finish a series of hand seals, an Otter of water swam threw the air and to the fire, but it evaporated as soon as it hit the flames.Oslak shouted to the villagers "get all the water specialists over here, now!".

Now she looked at the fire, and saw evil faces, coming from the fire. "**Come to us!" **a particularly beautiful woman of fire said, reaching out her hand, before disappearing in the flames, cackling madly. "No..." Tatsumi moaned, clutching her self. A gruesome face emerged from the flames** "You! We want your flesh! Your life!"**. It dissapeared again, in the flames. Suddenly from the flames errupted a fiery snake , it hissed and spat only to be replaced yet again by another form. **"You don't exist .You are mine"** the form of Orochimaru said, smilling, and reaching to her. That was too much. Tatsumi screamed, high and loud, covering her face.Orochimaru's laughter drowned out all other sound, she could feel the heat from his hands, as it reached for her, then suddenly, he was propeled back ward.

A giant Scorpion of smoke stood between her and Orochimaru. Orochimaru hissed and charged at the Scorpion in a wave of flames. The scorpion didn't flinch, it rose it's stinger and struck, leaving a hole, in the Orochimaru of fire. He drew back and the Scorpion vanished.Suddenly Orochimaru opened his mouth and laughed " Ha! Your gaurdian abandoned you!" and he moved with lightning speed and was almost upon Tatsumi. "Tatsumi , run!Move!" Akemi shouted but she didn't hear. Everything around Tatsumi seemed to be moving in slow motion. The people shouted but she heard no sound. She just saw the burning eyes of demon Orochimaru, and then

There was a glimpse of dark blue as a figure stood between her and Orochimaru yet again. Magenta eyes spoke up, the mysterious woman held out a necklase of silver beads, they encircled her like mist and caught the glare of the flames. "Demon," she said firmly "Be gone!".All the flames, the demons, and the heat, it all dissolved, blown away by the woman's word.At last, all that was left was the echo of the demons as they were dragged back down into hell. The lady exhaled slowly then turned to Tatsumi "well, your gaurdian was late, but I guess it came through, didn't it? You're the first I've met to have the scorpion as a gaurdian!" she said, pushing her dark blue hair back, her magenta eyes twinkling.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The camp was just establishing it was over, and they all breathed signs of relief. Oslak was first to recover. "What an incredible night! Really exciting! Ok, welcoming Tatsumi, the first to be under Scorpion's protection!". The village was slowly recovering and joined in the cheering. Tatsumi plopped down on the singed ground, holding her legs close and shaking. She nearly jumped when Akemi appeared by her side. "Are you ok, did you get burned? What a dumb question. Of course you were. I mean you were stuck in a ring of fire after all. Good grief! And you were stuck with a carbon copy of fiah like Orochimaru! Tell me where it huirts ,Ok? If it were me I'd have peed in my pants! You were really brave. Still, you could have at least moved! Oh, wait ,another dumb question, Ok, never mind" she said this all very quickly, and the only words Tatsumi were able to make out were 'Orochimaru', 'dumb', 'fire' and 'grief'. What the heck did that mean?! But she wasn't really listening. Her mind wandered to the Scorpion, then to some past memories...

Whew! This one was tough but at least it got more interesting! Anyway, Scorpion, Tatsumi. For those of you who had thought her gaurdian would be a snake, you guessed but didn't get it right. As for a connection between Akemi and a wolf, who knows? I have to say I'm feeling down hearted since I didn't get us much reviews as I hoped. For those who, sent I thank you for your support. Hey, maybe this time I'll get like, 15 reviews or more. Eight is a lucky number. I won't give up, yet!


	9. Asakuras

"speech"

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

Akemi put her hand on the shaking back of Tatsumi who was breathing shallowly and staring at the ground. Akemi's expression was unreadable, she was mentally going through all the scrolls she had read back in Konoha's library, trying to remember causes and effects of trauma. She was about to put her finger on it when she caught sight of the of the woman from before. She had been standing by silently, arms crossed over her chest. Her blue hair was tied up in a high ponytail, secured by a thin braid of her hair. Her bangs were, swept all the way to the side, covering one of her dazzling magenta eyes . She wore a plain beige trench coat over a sleeveless magenta turtle neck and very short shorts. The metal beads she had used before now lay loosely around her neck in waves, and a short bokken was wrapped up and tied to her waist. Akemi noticed she was a bit tanned but it didn't hide the resemblance. Standing before her was the older version of Rinn.

The woman's lips, tainted with violet lipstick, moved. "You, Hokage's daughter, give your friend to our medics, they deal with this sort of thing every now and then, they'll know what to do" it wasn't a suggestion at all. Akemi's jaw dropped ever so slightly but she turned so the shaman wouldn't see. "Tatsumi, I'll have to leave you a while, ok?". The golden eyes flickered to her face, "yes". Akemi frowned, great she was being monosyllabic again. She smiled and waved "I'll see you soon". Tatsumi scowled but let the medics herd her to a corner far from the fire.

That's when Oslak approached them "Veena. You're here, you don't usually come for feats…or was it some message from the guardians…" he implored. Said Veena scoffed "why else would I be here? You know I don't like…parties…". Oslak grinned "Awww…you're no fun…still…if you could go out with me…". She held out her hand in his face "No". That one word was chilling, Oslak smiled sheepishly and backed away, hands up as if to protect him from Veena's icy stare, "right…have fun, Akemi. Don't stay out too long".

Akemi's smile faded, and was replaced by a look, daring the shaman to confront her. The shaman was unfazed. She inclined her head, "come with me". Akemi followed, this could lead right back to Konoha, they'd never take her alive.

They walked, and walked, and they made it out of the camp, away from the laughter and the fires. They passed huge rocks, sticking out of the ground, they passed the stone statues of the guardians, and then they were in a dessert the trees became less, and grass scarce, but it wasn't _too_ far from the camp she could make a run for it if she had to.

Akemi wanted to know who she was dealing with. Veena might be related to Rinn, but then again she might not. She needed to make sure, so she decided to take her chance. "I saw Rinn stare like that once, at Naruto. He said he had nightmares". Veena paused, good, now to find out if she paused at Rinn. "This Rinn" she said unevenly "your friend?". Now she was getting somewhere. "Yeah, a good friend…was a good friend. I don't know, I mean, I _am_ a missing nin". Veena's eyebrows ceased "How do you think she felt , your friend, when you left. Surely she must miss you…". Akemi went in for the kill "you know her". It took only those three words to shatter Veena's hard demeanor. "What of it?!" she snapped.

Akemi sighed "You're related to her right? You look a little, young to be her mom, and your probably not her granny. That make's you ,what? Cousin, aunt, god mother-" "Sister". Ohhh, sister huh? Akemi decided to push farther "so, while she was stuck some where in Konoha, you guys must have been doing some interesting stuff. You know, barbeques, picnics, family stuff-". "It was not our fault!" Veena turned around and shouted in her face "it was that scum, Hao! He and his sexist group of brothers took over the clan and did away with the honorable women of our clan!".

Veena breathed in and continued walking. Akemi followed and was soon at her side "my…do you always have mood swings like that?". Veena shot her a look that can only be considered poisonous and quickened her pace "if it was up to me, you wouldn't be here". "Oh ho!" Akemi chanted "so there's more of you, is there?". Veena stopped and looked her in the eye " you, know, I would really _like_ to feed you do the hollows right now. You know, the tortured souls, chained to this world, who hate all living things and would very much _like_ to digest you". "And _I _would really _like_ to know why you're dragging me away the crowds, and keep feeling your bokken, _like_ you'd _like _nothing more to chop my head off". 'I would really like nothing more than to chop your head off' but Veena merely answered "touché" and continued walking.

Akemi was silent for about four seconds before she said "between you, and me, I think we said _like_, like, five times in a minute". Veena wanted to pull her hair out, talk about dumb blondes, but a voice inside her said _'no. You know she's more competent than that. She's just trying to annoy you to get information out of you'_. Akemi rubbed her shoulder, where her new wolf tattoo rested under her cloths "are you going to tell me your story?". Veena shook her head, "not until you've met my family".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Akemi stepped into the fire's glow, with Veena at her side. She saw maybe four more people, sitting around the fire. The one closest to the fire, a man with dark blue hair and orange eyes, spoke first "Veena, your hair looks a little unkept . Did you have a hard time?". Veena was almost frothing at the mouth "**you** try escorting the little brat! See how long **you** can stay sane!". Akemi smirked. The next one, a bespectacled man with ice blue hair and two toned eyes, one ice blue, like his hair, the other mint green, spoke "Aaah! You had a haaaard tiiime? Noooo?. The first thing that came to Akemi's mind was 'retard'. His glasses flashed "Uh hah! Another retard comment! You owe me a pack of kunai, Jinko!" he shouted. That man with orange eyes grumbled. Akemi took a step back she was seriously getting freaked out "You can-" "Read minds. I suuuuuure can!" he finished for her "I studied, but it doesn't work on those who set up mental barriers!".

Akemi took another five steps back out of sheer terror. "Edo, you're scaring her now" a voice said from a figure in front of the fire. He had raven black hair , sticking out a bit at the ends, and the back, and commanding magenta eyes, but as of now, they were turned away from Akemi and looking at the embers at the foot of the fire. The last figure, the one beside him was a girl with sleek, just a bit below the chin, red hair and shocking white eyes. Her eyes were hooded and looked mysterious, she inched closer to him and held his hand. He didn't pull away.

Veena sat cross legged ,between Jinko and Edo. The girl with white eyes, beckoned Akemi, gesturing to the seat on the other side of the boy with raven hair. He looked just a bit older than she was, but his command was absolute. She took her seat and waited. After a few moments of silence, the boy spoke "let's cut to the chase, shall we? My name is Kikuuji. That's Soma" he gestured to the girl with white eyes, "Jinko" he nodded to the man with orange eyes, who waved, "Edo" he stood up and waved happily, "and you've already met Veena". Veena scowled, and crossed her arms. "Now, as to why you're here, and how we knew you were here. Well, first the spirits told Soma, she's psychic". Akemi snapped her head up "yeah, Rinn does that too". Kikuuji looked interested "she does? So that's her area of specialty…" he rubbed his chin in thought. "Any way, we just wanted to know how she was doing…". This time, Akemi looked annoyed "she's doing pretty good. Think yourself lucky she didn't turn out messed up, not with her whole clan abandoning her! It's not right!". Veena stood up, her face was outraged "That again? I thought I told you-!" "That's enough Veena. She doesn't know, so she was every right to believe we abandoned her. Veena sat down, holding herself.

"You'd probably want to know" he started "why she was left in Konoha. Well, I'll tell you right now". Akemi listened. "My father was head of the clan. He was strict, stern and powerful. Something he always believed, was that women were only necessary for breeding, but still, my mother loved him. In fact, if anything, it made him annoyed.. he said that women were weak, useless, let their emotions get the better of them. He hit my mother, a lot" he said the last part bitterly. "My mother who was from the Kyushuki clan, a smaller shaman clan, could have fought back , she never did. Any way, one day, she decided to gather all the Asakura women and train them. Train them in the art of shaman and shinobi. And so she did. At first my father didn't care. But then, one day when an Asakura man was beating up his wife, their daughter came in the room and fought him. She almost won, but he beat her in the end. He then dragged her by the hair and through her before my father. I know, I was there. I was also there when he killed my mother. He blamed her for what happened. He said she was teaching the women to be violent and disobedient. My mother was weakened that time since she just gave birth to Rinn. If she had fought to her full capacity, she would have won…but she didn't. I remember, he through her in the middle of the compound, let the hollows finish her off. He then started telling the men to kill all the other women, so as to purge the stain on the Asakura. The pigs obeyed, they didn't even think. They went and slaughtered every female. Fortunately, the women fought back, with their newly acquired defenses and some made it away, safely, bringing their sons and daughters with them, so they wouldn't be harmed. Some men, took the women's side, like Edo and Jinko here. They fought against my father, even my older brother but…most of them were killed. In the end, the Asakuras who had survived, scattered. Now, our goal is to get rid of my father, and change the Asakura clan".

"So, what happened to Rinn?". Kukuuji paused as if he was remembering something and said "at that time, with the numbers of the Asakuras drastically lowered, they could not suppress the bijuu in our possession, so. They took Rinn from us, I don't know how they tracked us. She was only two then. They took her and the bijuu, giving her to Konoha, with the instructions to seal the demon inside Rinn and to kill her with it. If they couldn't have it, no one could. They thought the village would see her as dangerous and they would kill her…".

"But they didn't" Akemi said "they never sealed it inside Rinn". "We know" Soma said quietly "it was sealed inside Naomi Yuuhi instead". "That was Soma's first prediction" Edo said, "a seers first prediction is always, special. Either it's very precise, it's long instead of glimpses or it's very important. Guess Soma got lucky and it was all three!". Akemi spoke up "so…shamans, can see the future". "Well some need to meditate to do it for others, it just comes to them. Those are seers" Edo said. "Rinn's a seer…". Veena shrugged "I suppose so…". "Can all shamans summon spirits of dead people and make them fight for you?" Akemi asked. Jinko straightened up "not all of them. That's my specialty…can Rinn do that?". "Yeah, I've seen her, once". Edo rubbed his chin "Hmmm….I wonder…". "Wonder what? Spit it out Edo" Jinko commanded. "Could it be possible that little Rinn has multiple shaman specialties?". Akemi clapped her hands "yeah! That's it! She can summon Shikigami, use corpses-", "Ahh…necromancy". "-I've also seen her use that rusty bokken and merge it with spirits!". Kikuuji smiled sadly "that was mother's. It had belonged to her great great great grandmother. Father couldn't destroy it, so he gave it away along with Rinn…tell me, does she have the beads too?". "The silver, pearly ones?", "Um hm", "Yeah".

She heard Veena sigh. "What's she like ?". "Who, Rinn ?". "Who else would I be referring to?". "Haven't you ever seen her?". "Not in reality since she was two". Akemi crossed her arms "well, last I saw her, she had long blue hair, like yours, she always wore it down except she had a head band sometimes. She wears magenta a lot, too. She's on the S.L.T.C. unit…". Kikuuji spoke "yeah, we heard about that. My mom met Anko Mitashori once". "So then you'd know how the project was discontinued and then might re-continue". "She might have mentioned it". "Ok, anyway, she's a bit scary sometimes, she's really polite and she's…" and Akemi went on, describing to the four shamans, what her friend had been.

End of Chapter. Ok, for all you people who are wondering, who the heck is Rinn? Just check out my other story, glass kunoichi, although I made Akemi of Akatsuki before, glass kunoichi, they're still both in progress. Originally, Akemi of Akatsuki was meant to be a filler for Akemi after she left Konoha, but it might be a little confusing, since glass kunoichi just started, and I guess it kind of spoils it, but that's just how it is. Any way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	10. Why ,Sasori

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

Tatsumi sat in the moonlight, coming through the shelter. She leaned against the wooden wall, holding her legs close to her. The feast had finished, and more than half the village was asleep, yet Akemi still hadn't returned. It didn't matter, Tatsumi had some how expected she wouldn't see Akemi for the rest of that night when that woman had shown up. She also knew, she had nothingbetter to do than sleep, but instead, she just kept sitting there, at the end of her sleeping bag.

She lifted her hand up and examined the scorpion tattoo, curled around her wrist, it's stinger ending at the back of her hand."Why scorpion?..." she mumbled, moving her hand to let the moon light bathe every angle of the scorpion. She lay back on her sleeping sack, still looking at the scorpion. "Could it be, that the scorpion chose me, because of him...?". No, it couldn't be. Perhaps it was coincidental. But still, could it have been purposly a scorpion. Was it because her thoughts had wandered to a deep part of her in that ring of fire, that she had somehow, summoned the scorpion to her aid? Did it do so at its own accord? Did he somehow send it? Did he care of her wellfare? Did he remember her? Did he...

_Flash Back_

_Ten year old Tatsumi scrubbed the blood off the walls yet again as Kabuto dragged the corpse away. "Don't forget, we're changing to the compound, west of Suna soon,in two days or so. We will meet, Lord Orochimaru's partner in the Akatsuki" Kabuto said, as he slowly fished for his sscalpel. "You mean Sasori no Akasuna, the master puppeteer?" Tatsumi asked, kneeling to get the blood closer to the floor. "The one and only. Be on your best behavior because I won't be able to back you up if you make a mistake there, I'll have to return to Konoha otherwise they'll be suspicious as to why I'm gone so long". "Mm hm..." she continued scrubbing, this time, clinging to the wall with chakra so she could reach the blood higher up. "Hand me that vile, on the shelf , please, The green one, with a circular stopper" he instrucuted, pointing to the shelf across from where Tatsumi was scrubbing.Feeling lazy to jump of the wall and walk, she streatched her arm to an impossible length, grabbed the vile carefully with snake like speed and promptly handed it to Kabuto. Kabuto smiled and shook his head, accepting the vile from Tatsumi ,"now that you've gotten the hang of extending your appendages, you don't ever want to do it the way normal people do it, do you?". Tatsumi smiled emptily and retracted her arm . "Really" Kabuto said as she jumped of the wall and trotted over to him , "you are my best creation yet, Tatsumi. Almost like my very own little sister" . He smiled and ruffled her hair, then proceeded to make a clean slice in his specimen. Kabuto had never said that before, this was a rare moment indeed. She almost felt sad that he was leaving but, oh well. She wasn't really, trully alive, and being able to own her life. She was not allowed feelings, so she quickly did away with the small bit of emotion that made her heart a little heavier."Be very, very polite, Tatsumi" Kabuto said as he packed up his tools "and don't ever make him wait._

Tatsumi rolled on her side. At that time, Sasori had only ever been a name. A faceless accomplice of her master. Another person to fear or to mistrust. Just a name. And then she met him.

_She stood beside her master in the dessert, standing stock still, looking straight forward, yet aware of absolutely everything. She ignored the swirling sand around her, it didn't sting her eyes. It's as if the sand had registered that she wasn't alive and not worth pestering, so it had moved on to the lackies that stood behind her master. But not she, she was at his side. Orochimaru's lank, black hair, flew around his face, the Akatsuki robe billowed behind him. He licked his lips with his long, pointed tounge as he saw a figure move through the sand. A humped figure, also with the red and black , Akatsuki cloak, with a straw hat stopped before them. "Hello, orochimaru" said a hard, grovelly voice. "Sasori, it's nice to see my partner again...". "You've been acting alot out of Akatsuki recently, why is that?". Orochimaru licked his lips "I have been...trying to train my servant more...". Sasori's dark eyes flickered to Tatsumi, still as still as stone at Orochimaru's side. "Thats a nice puppet, Orochimaru". Tatsumi's golden eyes moved quickly, meeting Sasori's sharp, dark eyes."Hmph" Sasori muttered "so it's alive". Orochimaru smirked "yes, you could say that ,actually that'd the servant I mentioned before. The one my medic made from scratch. It's called Tatsumi". "Hmm...cheeky little brat, she's looking me right in the eye. Does it not know that I can kill her with a thought, then make her into one of my puppets?". Orochimaru leaned his head to the side "I assure you, it means nothing of it. It's not mocking you. It can't. No soul, see? I _own_ it". Sasori once again looked at Tatsumi, she looked back, her gaze devoid of every feeling and emotion. "Hmmm..." he said once more._

Tatsumi slipped her hand into her pack, and withdrew a scroll. She unrolled it and looked at it's contents.

..._"Aaagh!" she had screamed as the fired ashes were poured on her. She dropped onto her knees, the ashes burning into her cloths. "Tatsumi" Orochimaru's voice rang from the dark hall. "You don't feel pain. You can't feel pain. You won't felel pain. Pain means you are someone. But you, you are no one. You don't exist". The coal, still hot from the fire, fell at her feet, and she felt another wave of pain. "You own nothing. Not even that body of yours. Nothing. How can you own anything if you don't exist? How can you exist when you are just parts of people.?Your skills, your personality, your golden eyes. They all belonged to someone else. You belong to me". A wave of fire, passed through her. And her scream echoed throughout the whole compound as she saw ire. Every where. Fire__._

_The door banged shut as Orochimaru made his leave, leaving Tatsumi alone in the dark. She was exhausted, but she would die if she didn't heal herself soon, she knew that. She moved her hand to nher stomach and focused on the jutsus Kabuto had taught her. She gulped, but her whole body was numb. No pain. Just like Orochimaru had said. "He doesn't refer to you as a female. He always calls you it, I just noticed" an unfamilliar voice said from a corner of the gloom. Tatsumi struggled to her feet and still clutching her stomach, she said "Who are you? How did you get in?". The figure walked into the moon light. It was a boy, maybe fifteen years old with red hair and lidded brown eyes. And he wore an Akatsuki cloak. "Come with me" he said "quickly, I don't like being kept waiting". "Sasori..." Tatsumi breathed, until now she had never seen him outside of his puppet. "Yes?" he turned around. She lowered her eyes and bowed her head "sorry, nothing" and she followed him._

_"Where are we going?" she inquired . "To my room". "Why?". "You'll see". She followed after him, always keeping a bit behind him. She didn't know if she was worthy to be directly at his side. "Come" he said, and he led her into a room. It was empty, except for a pile of wood, and a few tools, as well as a bed. He directed her to the pile of wood. "I'm going to teach you how to make a puppet". Tatsumi paused "did my master ask you to?". "No, I'm doing this of my own accord". She sat down, and he stood across her. "First of all, look for a model or picture of what you would like from that scroll and come back to me._

_Days passed and she spent all her spare hours with Sasori, making her very own battle puppet. He had been very suprised with her choice. She had shrugged when he asked why she had chosen that model, then quickly apologized at her impertinence and explained that she had chose it because it would have been unexpected. He had stayed iwth her, taught her to manipulate the wood to her liking. He had helped her install the weapons to her puppet, he taught her how to use it, and it became her secret weapon. No one, not even Kabuto, not even Orochimaru, not Kari knew that she had become the puppet mistress of the puppet, Stinger._

Tatsumi sat on th bed, her fingers linking chakra strings to her creation, letting it scuttle about the shelter. The wooden scorpion was a plain brown, except for a red dash on it's back. It waved it's stinger menancingly.

_The compound door blew open and Tatsumi, now twelve, disposed of yet another puppet, reducing it to splinters. Orochimaru came by her "Tatsumi, I need you to hold off Sasori". "Yes, master" she answered bluntly.She let her summoned snakes wrap themselves around the puppets, nearby, crushing them to pieces.She slammed the nearest one into another with her extended arm, and quickly, grabbed a stiringe from inside her blouse and jammed it into her veins. Her hands were a blur in handseals as she released the temporarily acquired jutsu. "Ice jutsu, frosty gale!", she thrust both palms forward and the dozen puppets that had been coming for her froze, icicles, hanging of them. A kunai whizzed passed her, nicking her face. She gasped a bit as the blood trickled down her cheek. "A few inches to the right and that would have killed you" an icy voice said, emerging from the gloom. It was Sasori. Tatsumi raised her kunai up "you will not get passed me". Sasori sighed "I don't like making people wait and I beleive I have an appointment with Orochimaru". "I said you won't get passed me!". Sasori looked a bit shocked. "Take me seriously!" Tatsumi shouted, clutching the kunai tighter. Sasori narrowed his eyes "alright". In a matter of moments he was infront of her, his face inches away from hers. Tatsumi's eyes widened. He knocked the kunai out of her hands in one fluid motion, his other hand, securing a grip around her neck.She choked and coughed than he savagely through her aside. She hit the wall with a bam, leaving several deep cracks in the cement. She grouned and felt for another kunai, but a firm hand grabbed her wrist. She sputtered. A kunai protruded from her mid section, barely missing her vital spots. The blood trickling from the cut in her cheek joined the blood trickling from her mouth. She coughed up blood, one drop landed on Sasori's cheek._

_'This is it, isn't it?' she thought. He lifted his hand. She expected a slap or something brutal, but no, he simply lifted her chin, and made her look in his eyes, his beautiful eyes. Suddenly, all agressive thoughts on Tatsumi's part evaporated and she let out a small sob. A tear rolled down her cheek, but he wiped it away. "You know you can't fight to your fullest against me" he whispered. She sobbed again, all the tears held back in her pathetic life, had chosen now to break out. One two, three tears, they fell. He did nothing. He just never took his cold eyes off of hers. And she, she just cried, and cried. Finally, he tore his gaze away from her golden eyes, and gently let go of her face. He stood up slowly, rubbing the blood from her mouth before standing to full height. "The blades aren't poisoned" he said and turned away. "Live" he commanded her. And he was gone. Gone through the door. Leaving her to herself.And at last, her sobs racked her whole body. And she cried all night. Until Kabuto found her, peacefully asleep and exhausted from blood loss the next day. He scratched his head, wondering why she was even still alive. Wondering why Sasori Akasuna had let her live._

_End of flash back_

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Akemi came back sometime before dawn and found Tatsumi asleep in her sleeping bag, clutching a scroll to her heart. Akemi blinked twice then shook her head, dismissing it that Tatsumi had been studying a jutsu or something, then fell asleep with the scroll in her hand. Akemi kicked her sandals off then settled in her sleeping sack. She was about to go to sleep when she suddenly noticed something. Every single dog in the camp was barking and growling desparately.

Chapter ten done. Now, Sasori plays a part in the story and more of Tatsumi is unfolded. Hoorah! Hope you all enjoyed it. And...why are all the dogs barking , hmm...?


	11. Seeing the future

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

Akemi carefully moved out of her sleeping sack, hand on the kunai hidden in her shirt, in her side view she noticed Tatsumi's form, sit up and felt her looking at her meaningfully. Putting a finger to her lips and quickly pointing up, she put on her sandals. A quick nod from Tatsumi and she was gone, hidden somewhere up above, in the rafters. She flipped her hair back, nonchalantly, and picked a dark corner, somewhere at the back of the shelter. She went there, and leaned in the corner, purposely shrouded by the shadows, as her hand fell on a small, thin scroll at her side.

She waited in the shadows for a few moments that felt like ages. It was surprisingly quiet outside, except for the baying dogs, it was as if the village had disappeared without a sound. Just as the waiting seemed that it would kill her, the door, burst open. More like it was blown clear off of it's hinges, and slammed into the wall a few inches away from Akemi. Sound ninja came pouring in, but Akemi's hand was whipping open her scroll before they even knew she was there. She bit her finger, drew blood and smeared it on one of the kanji, marked on the scroll, there was a burst of smoke, and about a thousand senbon stormed out of the scroll, turning the Sound nin into purple pin cushions.

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Tatsumi frowned from her concealment in the rafters 'when did she become a weapons user, like that? She should have at least left one alive for interrogation…'. Another horde of enemies came through the hole in the wall. She snorted o herself ' there'll be plenty of that'.

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Akemi decided that would be too much to handle, so she turned tail and ran. Normally ,she wasn't the type to back down. So, she wouldn't. She leapt out of the shelter, smashing a wall and making another hole, damaging the already, half destroyed shelter. Without hesitation , the Sound ninja followed her, through he hole, and out in the open air. Akemi was bombarded by the sight of numerous hissing and crackling shelter, caught on fire. Some were undamaged, others in ruins. In the distance, she saw some sort of beast. A glowing bear, as well as a fiery lion. She stared at them in wonder, almost forgetting to run. This was solved quickly."Stop gawking and move!" she felt something shove her to the side as an unknown person took a defensive stance in front of her. Holding his hands together, he did the sign of the bird, bit his thumb, drawing blood, and finally did some unfamiliar hand sign to her, wherein he holds his right hand out, palm out, and with his left hand, places it palm down on his right wrist. "Great guardian beast Jutsu!". Something clicked. "Takato, that you?". He flashed her a toothy grin as the tattoo on his forehead glowed, and then there was a perfect replica of it in his hand. A large Golden eagle made of chakra surged from his hand, into the mass of Sound ninja. One who was unlucky, got nipped on the shoulder by the great wing and his entire arm burst into flame. His cry of pain was silenced by Takato who had unleashed a shuriken right between the eyes.

Akemi quickly pushed herself to the ground and took an attack stance beside Takato. "What was that jutsu?" she asked in awe. Takato answered proudly " that was the Great Guardian Beast jutsu. It's like unleashing your chakra in the form of an animal that can also think and see, as well as speak, depending on your level. Only those from Tsukigakure know this jutsu. It's like a combination of a summon and an elemental ninjutsu". The chakra eagle had now returned and was currently hovering above it's master. "Cool" Akemi admitted returning her attention to the Sound ninja, eyeing the eagle warily. "You'll have to teach me that" and she was in the fray before he could respond. She landed a kick to the jaw of one of the ninja nearby, and threw a kunai at another one. Noticing she still had her scroll in hand, she decided to summon up a chain wip. "Yaah!" she let it fly at the other ninja present, taking out another two. "Hey! You can't have all the fun!" Takato called, sprinting towards the ongoing battle, eagle by his side. He delivered a back kick to a ninja attempting to sneak up on him, and a punch in the gut to the ninja in front of him.

Suddenly a hard arm, came out of nowhere and knocked the breath out of him. He fell to the ground with a grunt. His eyes widened "Holy cra-!" he rolled out of the way as a heavy foot came down on him, missing him by an inch. He scrambled to his feet and quickly put some distance between him and his attacker. "Ouch!" in he saw Akemi beat to the floor by a sound nin.

She sat up, wincing and rubbing her head "guess our winning streak didn't last long" she mumbled as he pulled her up. There were only two ninja left, but both with cruel looking claws attached to their arms. Akemi narrowed her eyes. 'Ok. These guys are different from the other twelve. They know what they're doing". She dropped down into a position, she had learned back in Konoha, thanks to two green spandex suits. 'Lee, Gai-sensei, you taught me well…". And she moved forward. She appeared behind one of the enemies, "Compared to us, little girl, you move at a glacier's pace". His arm whipped out and he lashed at Akemi's unprotected abdomen. She fell back with a cry and a sputter, clutching her stomach. This time, the same enemy moved forward, posed to drive his long claws straight to her. "Die, you useless wimp!". "Squawk!". The eagle dove forward, trying to scratch at his eyes. Akemi took this as her chance, and got out of his striking range.. "Nuisance!" he muttered and he sliced the chakra bird in half. "Squawk?!" and it faded away.

Akemi appeared next to Takato "Are you ok?!" he asked anxiously as he registered blood trickling down her mouth. "I'll…I'll be ok" she said, whipping the blood off of her mouth. "Sorry I got your technique destroyed". His eyes glanced at the Oto nin who had wounded Akemi, and the one who had stood still up to now. "It's ok, I'll make another one". She nodded. And let her palm glow green, she started to heal herself. She winced as the lacerated muscle healed itself, and her internal organs, were sewed back together by her chakra. "I was stupid" she muttered "I probably shouldn't have been so straight forward". Takato shrugged "Probably. But no use beating yourself about it now". She huffed as the last of the damage healed, and she kneeled on the ground, catching her breath. Suddenly Takato grabbed her arm, and pulled her away as they broke into a run. "Wha-?!", she looked behind her, and saw but the other enemy, the other one who hadn't attacked, was gone. That meant one thing. She slapped Takato's hand away, "split up!" she commanded, and she broke right, he broke left.

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Takato ran through the forest, hoping the trees would give him cover, and as he ran he mentally kicked himself, over and over, and over again. 'I'm so stupid! I let her split up! I'm such an idiot! I left Kira and Nina, I went off on my own, I exhausted my chakra, and the village is under attack! Am I going to do anything right, tonight?!". He was thrust out of his thoughts when, in a blur, the aggressive ninja from earlier, appeared before him. "Going somewhere, sonny?" he slashed at him with his claws, but Takato, ducked, and ran left. "I love a good game of hide and seek!" he called out. "Who's hiding?!" Takato shouted as he dropped his henge of a rock, and leapt out of hiding, landing a punch on said ninja's jaw. He dropped to the floor, out cold. Takato stood before him, arms crossed and smirking. "Don't mess with Tsukigakure" he said triumphantly. He turned around to look for Akemi. He stopped and fell. "Heh, Fooled ya!" the ninja shouted, hand around his ankle. All the color drained from Takato's face.

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She was running, but running with a purpose, she knew exactly where she wanted to go. She didn't run out of fear. She never ran out of fear. But she wanted people to think that she ran out of fear. That she was your regular genin, that defected from the village. That was why she let herself be hit in front of Takato. Now she ran from the enemy, so that he would think she was just a scared little genin from Tsukigakure, she was scared witless. She loved playing this game. She was good at it.'Deception' might as well be her middle name.

Akemi ran, already passed the tall jutting rocks, and on the trail of the small dessert. So far she hadn't seen the silent Oto nin. But he was there, of course he was there. He was playing with her, his toy. Playing with her, his toy full of pointy kunai. She stopped, and doubled over panting, a perfect way to get him out. Make him think she was tired. Make him think she thought it was safe. Do all that and wait.

Finally he stepped from behind a rock, claws in hand, face stoic, eyes hard. He wasn't the kind to make his prey beg, he wasn't some sadistic bastard that most Oto nin were. He'd just run his claws through her, plain and simple, no need to scare the poor girl. He rushed forward, claws ready.

Akemi smiled, she was already holding her kunai, she'd thrust it behind her at the last minute. He wouldn't have time to stop and he'd practically run into it. It was that easy, heck, she wouldn't even tire herself. That run was good exercise. He was coming almost upon her. "Come on, come on, you're almost there…" she had started the countdown in her head…then he just stopped. She whirled around, to see the interference. "Sorry to take your kill, but Soma wants him for something" Kikuuji said nonchalantly. Akemi blinked…"where were you ,when Tsuki was burning?!". Kikuuji closed his eyes "we are currently tracking a more potent being, the leader of the attack, as well as his supporter". Akemi ground her teeth "you mean Orochimaru is here?!". "Yes, but he has help, help from another shaman convent". Akemi replaced her kunai in her blouse "how do you know?". "Soma has been trying to track down Orochimaru by seeing where he'll go, or what he'll do next, but his future keeps changing. You see, as long as one makes a decision, that's the future Soma will see. But when one changes that decision, his future also changes, following the course of that decision. Seeing the future isn't all that simple". He slung the sound nin on his shoulder and started walking, Akemi at his side. "We don't know who will live and who will die tonight…".

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The sound nin stared at his prey, a young, blonde Tsukigakure genin. He would slice this one up, slowly. As he recalled the most brutal means of torture, he didn't notice a small glowing butterfly , land lightly on his hand. Nina hid in the overgrown bushes and watched the scene commence. Now she lifted her two fingers to her lips and whispered "Katsu".

BOOM! The harmless looking butterfly exploded, and the Oto nin released his grip on Takato with a howl of pain, and stumbled backwards. Takato twisted his head around in surprise. Something darted out of the bushes and slammed into the Oto nin's gut, knocking him forward. Takato immediately caught the drift, channeling chakra in his fists, he formed tallow shaped claws with his hands, and scratched the imposing figure, much like an angry eagle, once again the Oto nin was shoved, and finally "Katsu!" he fell in a mass of butterflies which detonated as one. His shout of outrage was cut short, and he slumped on the ground.

"Whew" Takato wiped the beads of sweat off of his face, "thanks, you guys". Kira was by his side in a bolt. "See that proves you can't live without us, fearless eagle my foot!" he said, hands behind his head. Takato scowled "put a sock in it. Nina's butterflies were more vicious than you, otter-lee adorable". Nina pushed away he bushes and walked closer to him. "You're ok, right?". "Uh-huh". "Hey" Kira said looking around "where's Akemi?". Takato bolted to his feet "Akemi!".

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Tatsumi sprinted through the mess that was Tsukigakure, she avoided deadly objects, cast no second glance at the wounded, and continued on. She _had _to get to the threshold where Orochimaru waited. She _had_ to save the village. She _had_ to kill that snake. She stopped in her tracks, still and alert. 'Please not her. Please oh, please, oh please…'.A long slender katana, rested on her shoulder, an inch from her neck. "Stop where you are" a graceful voice from behind her ordered, "or I cut you down". Tatsumi turned around slowly, counter clock wise to face the owner of the blade. Gold met Amber. "Let's make this as quick as possible, Kari". The slender, older girl with lime green hair tied back, smiled good naturedly. Her smile didn't reach her Amber eyes. "Haste makes waste".

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"The best. You're one of the best" Tatsumi mumbled, "if I beat you, I get a chance at taking down Orochimaru". Kari's smile disappeared, "honey, you can't beat me". She swung her katana, and Tatsumi leapt back, managing to only let some strands of hair get sliced, but as she got stable footing, Kari rushed forward, her large, black billowy sleeves flapping behind her. In one graceful movement, she jabbed the katana at Tatsumi, who slapped it away before leaping back again. Tatsumi spit out four poison needles, which Kari, effortlessly swapped away. Kari rushed again at Tatsumi but changed her mind at the last minute and flipped back, a good distance away from Tatsumi. She dodged behind a rock as a few more kunai embedded themselves in it.

She breathed easily, Kari took a glance from behind her boulder and saw Tatsumi was no where to be seen. 'She must be going for a stealth attack. She lowered to the ground. Focusing chakra on the sword, it turned water like and coiled itself around her arm, hidden under her sleeve. From her other arm, a kunai slid out of the sleeve and into her waiting hand. She leapt out from behind the boulder and waited, for the pinkette to show. The amber eyes swept over her surroundings slowly, when it dawned on her. "Oh" she said straightening up. She looked at a foot print in the grass, heading towards the rock field, "she ditched me".

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'I really wanted to fight her, I really did. But I have to set my priorities' Tatsumi thought making another great dash. "Poison Gas jutsu!". Tatsumi turned around, wide eyed. A purple smoke engulfed her, forcing her to cough and gag. A silhouette emerged in the gas and in one swift motion….punched her in the gut. The force threw her back a few paces, and out of the cloud of poison gas, then she came to a sudden sop as she collided into another rock. She heard crack and blood spurted out of her mouth. She groaned in pain as she slumped onto the grass.

Kari emerged from the now dispersing cloud of poison, hands on her hips. "It's rude to just leave your opponent waiting" she said, a trace of mock amusement in her voice. Tatsumi scowled, and, wincing, slowly stood up. The crack she heard had turned out to be one of her fingers, which had been caught between her and the rock. She looked at it, for a bit and tried to move it. It remained straight, didn't move at all. "Great" she grumbled. This will really mess with this battle. Nearly no jutsus that use hand signs. She sighed and eyed her opponent warily. Kari glared back at her, probably deciding the outcome of the brawl. She wasn't even up against Orochimaru and she already had a handicap.

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Veena glanced at Akemi, nodding in her direction once, Akemi in turn, nodded back. "Ok" Kikuuji stood, "you know the plan". The five shinobi nodded. Head for the center of the village. There Orochimaru and his partner will appear. Kick there butts. Stay alive. It was too simple.

Right. First part, accomplished. They were now in the center of the village. The rest were oblivious to them. The embers rose high, high in the air, fire crackling, on all sides. Akemi sniffed the air, and peered through the smoke, looking for signs of a snake. She saw Oslak toss away a Sound nin. "Don't give up, men!" he shouted, "We can take them down!". There was a chorus of "yes, sir!", and a chakra bear, and lion roared into the night before charging. Soma tapped Kikuuji's shoulder lightly, as he turned to face her she whispered a faint, "they're coming". A sad look darkened Kikuuji's face for half a second, then he turned to his comrades. "Payback time" he murmured. Veena narrowed her eyes, and set her jaw, Jinko cracked his knuckles, Edo, smiled, merrily, eyes close, Soma clenched her fist and brought it to her silver beads, and Akemi looked up, determination blazing in her gaze. Suddenly all at once, Oslak and the other ninja picked up a burst of chakra, Soma brought her hands to her face, and the ground cracked like there was an earthquake right beneath them. Next thing she knew she was flying through the air as a giant purple snake burst right through the ground. Her eyes widened for a semi-second, recognizing it to be one of Orochimaru's summons. Speak of the devil, the snake himself was there, along with his steely surgeon. Orochimaru stood on the head of the great serpent, Kabuto beside him. "My" Kabuto said catching sight of her, "it's Akemi. Of all the places to run into you". Orochimaru turned his gaze to her, "Ah…Tsunade's scion. What is she doing, so far from home, I wonder…?", his gaze went to a figure at his back, "what do you think, Sasuke?". "Hn".

Akemi bit her lip, and fought the urge to cry out in agony. Sasuke had been of the leaf village, and she had always considered him a friend. Now he shows his face to her after causing those back home so much pain! 'You caused them pain too…' a voice at the back of her head nudges her. She shakes it off, and now looks up into the Uchiha's blood red eyes. She gulped, Mayuri's had never been so…frightening.

Beside her, Veena let out a loud shriek of rage, she pointed an accusing finger at another figure, who had, all this time, been standing silently, to the edge of the battle. It was a forlorn man with dark blue hair and magenta eyes, that held, what could only be described as pure power. He wore white robes, blood red beads dangling from his neck, and had a long , evil looking katana in his hands. Kikuuji's face twisted in hate. "Father", he breathed out, as if saying the word was a curse. "Son" , Hao Asakura said simply.


	12. The Death of Tsuki

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

Akemi gulped and took a step forward, eyes on Sasuke. Most likely, she would end up being his opponent and if that happened, when that happened, she wanted to make the first move. She shifted her eyes between Sasuke and Kabuto every once in a while, knowing Soma and Edo were keeping tabs on Orochimaru. Meanwhile, Hao Asakura had Kikuuji's, Veena's and Jinko's undivided attention.

She drew a deep breath, and glared up at the Uchiha, who stared back at her coldly. A mental countdown began in her head. '1…' Orochimaru's lips moved giving quick orders to Kabuto. '2…' he gestured to Akemi vaguely, facing Sasuke. '3…' His cold golden eyes focused on his opponents. 'Go!'. Akemi and Sasuke darted at each other at the exact same moment. He drew a long katana from his side, she grabbed a kunai from her holster. Clang! They both fell back to Earth. Sasuke landed gracefully on his feet, meanwhile Akemi was already speeding toward him with unrestrained speed. There was an exchange of blows between the two as smoke and dust gusted around them.

"Feed, my pet…" Orochimaru whispered. The giant violet snake lunged forward, a rushing ,purple, missile of doom . It missed Edo barely, and he jumped out of the way, a merry smile plastered on his face. The snake turned it's attention to the next target. Soma was unlucky enough to be the one closest by. A gigantic tail wrapped around her. Soma gasped, struggling for breath but the snake effortlessly snapped her in two, and tossed her aside.

No one fell for the cheap trick though. The genjutsu dropped, and it appeared to be the corpse of an Otonin. "Hm…she reanimates corpses, like you, Kabuto" Orochimaru said in a silky voice. Kabuto pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose. "Would you like me to take care of her, my lord?". Orochimaru shook his head, "no, I'd like you to occupy yourself with the sky blue buffoon ", he glanced at Edo. Kabuto smirked "that can be arranged". He leaped off the snake and went to meet Edo. Orochimaru turned around to face the icicle eyed red head. "You're name was Soma was it, my dear? Hao said you were the accomplished seer for the group. We had to make a great many changes in our plans because of you". Soma snorted "Hao never thinks highly of women". Orochimaru then smiled "I just wanted to be in your good graces before I killed you". In a lightning swift movement Soma drew a katana and held it an inch away from the snake. "We shall see". The sword began to glow. "Spirit jutsu: Zanpakto!". There was a large explosion as the sword, now bigger and shaped like a scythe, cut through the summon.

Akemi and Sasuke exchanged blow ,after blow, after blow, neither resorting to any jutsus yet. The sound of cloth whipping through the air and punches being blocked filled the atmosphere around them. It was simple, all out, Taijutsu competition. Akemi sent him a round house kick, he, in turn, grabbed the opposing appendage. In a split second, she knew, he was intending to break her ankle, but she would let no such thing happen . With the other leg she gave up her balance for a kick in his face. He let go as she thudded to the ground and stepped back, rubbing his jaw as she jumped back onto her feet. She gave him a toothy grin, displaying her pleasure in the fight, and moved forward. 'This is my chance' he thought.

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'I've got him now!' was her thought as her punch hit home. Her smile sat on her face, triumphant when Sasuke disappeared in a poof of smoke. "SHADOW CLONE?!". The real Sasuke leaped out from behind a boulder, and before she could react, he had her pressed against a boulder. His hand firmly on her chest , preventing her from getting away, and his other hand with a kunai, dangerously near her throat, keeping her from squirming. It was too difficult to suppress a smirk. "It looks like I win". Akemi's hand grabbed his wrist holding the kunai, the other, resting on his own chest. "Tell me that when all my limbs are broken and I can see sweet Kami". Her hands glowed green and in unison they began to phase. She damaged his appendix, clinging to it, wringing it, doing damage from the inside. He gasped in pain and winced, blood spurting from his mouth. Meanwhile, she severed the nerves in his wrist, and it dropped slowly, away from her neck, however, mustering all the strength he had left in that hand, he plunged the kunai into her gut.

Her eyes widened, and she lost her hold on him. He staggered back, his breathing labored and she clutched the boulder for support. She wiped away the blood trickling from her mouth. She pulled out the kunai, a small moan escaping from her lips. 'Oh, crap, this hurts! It's much easier if you're unconscious when they pull the knife out!'. Gasping ever so slightly, she raise her hand to heal it, when another hand shot out and grasped it tightly, painfully. There was murder in Sasuke Uchiha's eyes. "If I have to take the damage, you suffer with me". And his other arm whipped back and slammed hard into the side of her head, knocking her paces back. Her world shook as she fell.

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The giant snake's head hurled to the ground as Soma landed neatly on the ground. Somewhere on the other side of the head stood Orochimaru. He stepped over the head, a light smile, displayed on his lips. "I haven't had a good sword fight in years…" his hand came to his mouth as he pulled his own sword out of it. She wasn't some unseasoned warrior to make a face at the totally gross scene before her. Instead she steadied her stance, and awaited his attack.

The sword was completely out now, held loosely in his hand, he shook it around, slowly, in the air in a clockwise motion, making a steady nick in the dirt, at every round. Soma's eyes glowed as she looked ahead into that, yet to come, the strands of time, meaningless to her. When that nick became an inch long, he would strike. She had 22 seconds to formulate a plan of action. He'd move, head on. 17 seconds. Fast as lightning, with a firm grip. 12 seconds. She wouldn't be able to dodge. 7 seconds. Only counter it. 2 seconds. Here it goes.

They lunged at each other, Orochimaru cackling madly, intent on striking a fatal blow, Soma intercepted the blade and threw it back, she sent it at him and nicked his arm, they leapt back away from each other, before continuing the deadly dance of slashing blades. This went on and on, they blocked, they twirled they sent hordes of strikes…and Soma was getting worn out.

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Everything was wrong. They had been fighting for days. And they were all tired, all worn out, all barely alive. Edo had fallen yesterday, too tired to continue, he smiled one last smile, his eyes blurred and seeing nothing. He fell backwards, humming to himself as Kabuto struck the final blow. Oboju too, had died. He had taken down thirty Oto nin before he let himself go to sleep. Nina was dead as well. She had took a blow for her team mates, shielding Takato from the worst. Two days later Takato died of infection, and four hours later, Kira died in his sleep of grief, his whole squad had died. Edna had remained in the shelters, healing everyone she could, saving only half. Tatsumi? Well she was still fighting against Kari in the rock field that was now nothing.

Soma had lost all her movement in her right arm, and Jinko had died, after going blind. He went into frenzy, destroying all in his path until he was stabbed, by a kunai he failed to hear. The sky was dark grey and they barren fields were tarnished in blood, still the sound of clashing metal filled the air. Still, there were more casualties. Kikuuji still fought, he fought, one on one against Hao, Veena had had to go against Kabuto.

Akemi's POV

I was weak. I couldn't fight any more. I was bloody and broken. And I was said. Oh, so sad. The sadness I carried, was too heavy for me to bear, it was like lead, poisoning me, pulling me down. I was grieving as I fought. Grieving for my friends I failed to save. Grieving because I could not have been there with them in their last hours. Because I was still fighting against this wretched Sasuke Uchiha. But I didn't hate him. I was too sad, to make room for hate. I was crying as I fought, though you couldn't see my tears. I was crying. And Sasuke, he wasn't as aggressive, the carnage around him was getting to him. I knew that in every body he saw, he saw one of our friends in Konoha. He knew this would happen to Konoha, such was Orochimaru's brilliant design.

So he let me cry as I fought, he half heartedly through deadly projectiles at me. I half heartedly blocked them. Half of my heart was gone. This village should have been my home. I should have grown with these people before I set of to find the Akatsuki, but no. I didn't even have the will to live that long. I wanted to die. I wanted to die so bad, but Sasuke just kept missing my heart. I had to wait.

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Veena fell on the fifth day, exactly five minutes after midday. Kabuto just pushed up his spectacles, brushed the dirt off of his pants and walked away. Kikuuji died too, but not before taking Hao with him. They both stabbed each other at the same time, and Kikuuji, he actually smiled. Soma surrendered. As soon as Kikuuji died she lost the will to fight. She went over to him. She knelt by him. And she cried. Orochimaru juat let her be, he thought she would suffer more, alive then dead, so he left.

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Akemi's POV

Orochimaru killed me today. Just like he killed everybody else in the village. He got impatient with Sasuke and just stabbed me right then and there. He let me lie there bleeding. Sasuke knew I was alive, he looked at me before he left. Then he left, Orochimaru, Kabuto, Sasuke and whatever was left of the Oto force he brought with him, they all left. And Tsuki was just there, sitting on rubble. They left Oslak's corpse in the middle of the square, as a reminder of what happened. I saw Kari being carried by Kabuto lovingly, like she was made of China. He whispered comforting words to her. She was bloody, too, like me, but she was alive. Then I cried again, because I knew Tatsumi was dead, if Kari was alive. It started to rain, hard. First a drizzle, then I felt like they were dumping the whole damn ocean on me. I fell asleep.

When I woke up it was still raining and the shaman's bodies were gone, I was too tired to think too much about it. I hoped they were still alive and walked off, but it seemed way too impossible to be true. I just lay there, like a doll. Then I got mad. Really mad, I got so mad that I screamed. I screamed and screamed and screamed, till the whole village shook with my screams. I hated that snake. I hated him, and wanted him gone. That way, I could avenge Tsuki, and save Konoha.

I pushed myself to my feet, with new found strength, I healed my wounds too. It was still raining when I was done, and I walked through the village. I walked into Oslak's tent, and took some scrolls with the Great Guardian beast Jutsu in it. I wasn't going to let the jutsu die out. I'd learn it. And when I was done learning it, I'd give it to someone, and tell them to learn it. I'd make it into a kekkai genkai or something, so it would continue for generations.

I took some stuff I'd need. Kunai, a sleeping bag, explosive tags, some money and a whole lot of soldier pills. That was enough, I could get by with that alone. And then I left Tsuki. Forever.

End of Chapter 12. I'm sorry if that was a bit too emo for some of your tastes but this is a major part of the story, this is what propels Akemi too join Akatsuki since she wants to kill Orochi so bad. This is the end of the first arc, and in the next arc, there is a time skip of two years. Also, you might see a little more of the story through Akemi's POV. Hope ya enjoyed it still. Please review, opinions, requests and suggestions are most welcome!


	13. Akatsuki

"speech"

'thought'

**Demon**

'**Demon thinking'**

_Flash back_

A girl with platinum blonde hair and brown eyes walked , towards a large stone cave. Her pace was slow and easy, as she sent ripples through the lake which she now walked on. She had a long, slender body, wrapped in black shades. She bore a leaf single, which was scratched all the way through, and a strange, crescent moon which lay, unscathed around her head. As a shinobi, she could easily take a walk on water. As a rogue nin nomad, well, that was just the beginning.

Akemi's POV.

Five hundred, forty-seven days and twelve hours. Exactly five hundred, forty-seven days and twelve hours since I left the ruins of what once had been Tsuki, something I might have been able to call home. But it was ripped away from me, along with my friends and allies, all by a snake, Orochimaru. Now he set his sights on Konoha, my birth place, and my true home. I left this village, knowing that some how, I could make Konoha stronger. But, I needed help from the outside world. Now, my main purpose, is to find that snake and eradicate him completely. This is why I seek the Akatsuki. Because we have the same goal. One of them at least. Also, I have been meaning to meet up with an old acquaintance of mine…

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"Crap. There's someone at the door" the silver haired Hidan stated. "Yes, we can see that" Kakuzu answered. "Hey brat, isn't that the genin from Konoha you were raring about?" Sasori asked in a bored down. Deidara didn't seem to hear him refer to him as 'brat', "it's her. Akemi's finally here ,un". "Yeah, yeah, go greet you girlfriend at the door before she breaks it down". "That might cost money to fix the damage…"Kakuzu trailed off. "Shut up, un" and he was away in a poof of smoke.

He reappeared before her just as she was gathering chakra for a punch to knock down the large boulder in the way. "Hey, hey, no need to break the door down, un", next thing he knew the chakra in the punch was thrown at him, sending him flying to the side. He slid to a stop, on top of the water. "I'd just knock" Akemi said sweetly "the punch was for you". "Jeez, this girl doesn't waste any time getting down to business, un" he winced pushing himself up.

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"Sweet!" Hidan shouted, "man bitch, is getting his ass kicked by girly! You've got to see this!". Kakuzu walked closer, "just as long as they don't smash anything it's fine". Sasori watched the on going battle with just a teeny weeny bit of interest, "she might actually give the brat a run for his money". Then he heard her shout something, "if ,I can kick your butt, you guys give me a chance to get in Akatsuki!". There was a shocked silence. This girl, actually wanted to join Akatsuki. Interesting.

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Deidara grimaced. Then a competitive glint lit up his eye. "As if you'd ever beat me. Art is a bang ,un!" and with that he threw a clay bird at her. So fast, the clay bird came, that she hardly had time to react. There was an explosion, and Akemi was next seen, flying out of the cloud of smoke, burns all over her. She collided with a the giant boulder, and slumped to the Ground, her face bearing a look of pure agony. "Like I side , as if you could ever take me down. You gave me a really painful punch though, un".

Akemi tried to get up, shaking all over, she tried to get to her feet, but all she managed was a crouch, then, she just poofed away. The spectators eyes widened a little, impressed at how it turned out to be nothing but a mere, clone. The smoke from Deidara's earlier explosion was dispersed now, and he saw, a hole in the ground. The ground cracked behind him, and he just managed to jump away, as Akemi emerged and jabbed him with a kunai, leaving a slice in his cloak. "A head hunter jutsu, nice move . Combined with a kage bunshin, nice, un" he admitted, landing far away from her. "Smoke, is very useful" Akemi began, "you have to know how to use simple things completely to your advantage, to be a good shinobi". Deidara nodded, the smirk returning to his face, "this'll be fun, un".

Deidara, took out a statue, from his pocket, and held it up for her to see. "See this statue? It's one of my best creations. With an explosion like this…well, let's just see if you can handle it, un". This time Akemi smirked. She held up her hands to him, and flexed her fingers. " These are what I'll beat you with", then she pulled them back to her body and waited. As soon as Deidara started his hand signs, her own fingers to began forming, hand signs. They were about to release their jutsus when…

"Ninja art: Great Guardian Be-?!" she felt firm threads circle around her hands, keeping them from continuing, and she felt something sharp and curvy at her neck, looking around she saw, Hidan, scythe at her neck. She pouted. Meanwhile, Sasori had his hand over Deidara's mouth. "Say Katsu, and I'll turn you into one of my puppets". Deidara's eyes narrowed, annoyed, but he complied, he put the statue back in his pocket and Sasori slowly withdrew his hand from his partner's mouth. Kakuzu snorted, "he obviously doesn't have his head in the right place. That bomb would have blown this place sky high". Hidan yawned. Once upon a time, Akemi would have shouted and demanded that she be let go, but now she kept her silence. No need to piss off the Akatsuki members who held her captive. One of them might accidentally slip, and she'd end up, headless, or crushed to bits.

Sasori straightened up, "you, there. What was your name again?". "Akemi". Sasori nodded slowly. "Akemi, you want to join us don't you?". She nodded once. "Any particular reason why?". She looked thoughtful for a second, thinking how to answer. She decided to answer truthfully. "I want to kill Orochimaru". Sasori waved his hand, "very well, Kakuzu, Hidan, let her go". Hidan grumbled as he returned his scythe to it's rightful place, "Barbie, get's all bossy when leader and blue girl aren't around cause he's third in command".

Akemi looked at her hands, they were a bit red, but otherwise, unharmed. She needed her hands. He gestured to her to follow him, and she did. Once inside the cave he turned around to face her.

"What was that jutsu you were about to use earlier?".

"A special jutsu known only in a particular village".

"It's not Konoha is it?".

"No".

"How did you gain access to it?".

"I joined that village and taught myself through the scrolls".

"What village?".

"A small village, named Tsuki".

"Why aren't you there now?"

"It was destroyed". There was silence in the cave for a short while, as they let the information sink in. The silence didn't last long.

"Who destroyed it?"

"Orochimaru".

"That's why you want to kill him? To avenge your village?".

Careful not to mention that she also wanted to save Konoha she answered "yes".

"What about Konoha?"

"What about it?".

"Why did you leave?".

"It was weak".

"And Tsuki wasn't ?".

Akemi smiled. "We had forty-nine shinobi. Oto had three hundred, as well as an all powerful shaman shinobi, Orochimaru himself, his right hand man, Kabuto Yushuki, and poison mistress Kari no Sasori. They went home with fourteen shinobi, not including the shaman".

Deidara smirked. Sasori stayed silent for a few moments, contemplating various factors. "What are your abilities?". "I have extreme strength, am a master at Taijutsu, I can open up to four chakra gates, and I can use the Great Guardian Beast jutsu". "Is that all?". "No. I am also a very experienced healer. I have an affinity for tools. And I can damage internal organs during battle".

"What do ya mean?" Hidan called from the back of the cave, "I know you ain't noHyuuga".

Akemi crossed her arms, about to explain, "healing jutsus are very complex. They include mending bones, closing wounds and healing vital organs. Did you know that seal liver skin is one of the thinnest substances in the world?".

"Listen lady, what does this have to do with anything".

"I have learned how to phase through my opponent's outer shell with the use of it. By turning the liver skin into oil and rubbing it on my hands, I add chakra through it, and phase through my opponent".

Hidan snorted "I don't believe you, woman".

Akemi was getting annoyed, "want me to test it on you?".

"That's enough, we'll take your word for it, for now" Sasori interrupted. Then he glanced at Deidara and said, "Deidara, take her to one of the rooms, she is not to be let out until we get commands from Leader-sama or Konan".

Deidara rolled his eyes but otherwise said, "yeah, yeah, Danna, un". He firmly took a hold of Akemi's arm and dragged her away. As soon as they were out of sight, he put his arms around her. She began to panic, "hey, hey, what do you think you're doing?!". He removed his arms and she saw, a clay spider, secured around her chest. Apparently not liking it, she tried to pry it off but to no avail. She shot him a murderous glance. "Take it off". He smirked, "no. That's to make sure you don't escape. If you step a meter out of your room, this bomb will explode, un". She hissed at him and continued trying to pull it off, as he once again grasped her arm and pulled her towards the room. "It's no use. Only I can take it off, un". She started scowling, "maybe if I punch you to death, you'll change your mind", but the Akatsuki member just ignored her empty threat.

Finally they reached a door, receded into the rock wall. He opened it with a click and unceremoniously shoved her into it. Surprisingly , it was well to put you in a lit, large and rather welcoming. She turned to him with a questioning look. He just shrugged and said "we have funds to make sure every Akatsuki member is comfortable enough. Guess Danna just didn't want to put you in one of the prison cells, un". As he was closing the door, he added "there's a shower and a tub, in the bathroom. Don't worry about the bomb if you want to take a bath, un".

The door closed and the footsteps died away. Akemi headed to the door which , presumably was the bath room. She stepped inside, and took of her bags and kunai holster, then kicked of her sandals. She stepped in front of the large mirror and looked at the bomb. Biting her lip, she decided to see what happened if she put water on it. She opened the tap, and let it spray her fingers. Turning the tap off, she let some droplets fall on the spider. It began to shudder, then it let go of her chest for a brief moment, then fastened itself on her bare arm. She blinked, watching it harden and settle. "Deidara sure put effort in this thing".

She walked over to the tub and turned the water on, letting it gush into the tub. Five minutes later the tub was full. She tested it with her fingers and noticed it was nice and warm, a luxury she didn't often have. She started to unzip her top. She pulled off her shorts, and threw it in a pile. After fully stripping her cloths and tossing it all in one messy pile, she stepped into the tub.

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After her bath, one fifteen-year old Akemi sat on her bed, wrapped in a towel, feeling refreshed. She rubbed her hair with another towel, but still letting the drops drip onto the bed. There was an abrupt knock on her door, she grabbed a shuriken. The door opened and Deidara walked in, only to jump back, a shade of pink on his face. She rolled her eyes. He glanced at her wet body, hidden by nothing but a towel. He turned away, his face at an angle so as not to have a full view. "S-sorry, un. I didn't mean to intrude-" a shuriken whizzed past his ear and stuck itself into the door frame. "Shut up. You did the right thing by knocking but you should wait for me to answer". At that moment, Sasori stepped in and pushed the door wide open. "Sasori Danna, un!". "The Leader is returning here soon. He will most likely examine you, so I suggest you finish up, quickly". With that said, he turned around and left, still leaving the door wide open, and a gaping Deidara. Akemi fingered another shuriken, "quit staring". That was all it took. "Right, sorry, un!" Deidara apologized, leaving, now a delicate shade of red".

Akemi sighed and dropped the shuriken, in her pouch beside her. She stood up and went to her back pack. She found a thick tube, hanging on her bag. "Guess I'll have to use this since my, cloths are dirty and I want to make a good impression".

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Two hours later Kakuzu entered her room to fetch her and found her sitting on a chair…wearing a dress, "you Akatsuki guys don't know how to enter people's rooms correctly, do you?". She was in a long black, sleeve-less dress . There was a high collar, connected with a wing shaped brooch an In the front, was a diamond shaped hole, showing her skin underneath. There was a slit on the side, and her kunai pouch peeked out from it. She wore regular ninja sandals, and both hitai-tes around her waist. Lastly was her hair, instead of being down as usual, it was tied up.

Kakuzu, otherwise ignored her observation and glanced at the shuriken lodged in the door frame. "I threw it Deidara" she answered his unasked question. He just nodded and led her out."What's your name?" she asked the ex-waterfall nin. "Kakuzu". "I'm Akemi", he just nodded. 'Ok, this guy isn't a talker'.

Finally, they entered a large towering section of the cave. Before her, were two gigantic statues of hands, and on the fingers, sat each of the Akatsuki members. She noticed Deidara staring at her intently. Hidan grinned, as Kakuzu took his place at the hand. He said something that she couldn't catch. Next was Sasori, a troubled look on his face. Akemi's eyes lingered him a moment longer. Finally, letting it go, her eyes move to the other Akatsuki members. She saw a strange man, half, black, half white, with a Venus fly trap on him. Not wanting to be accused of staring she looked somewhere else and almost stared into the eyes of Itachi Uchiha. She nearly choked, the resemblance between him and Sasuke was there. His obsidian eyes bore into hers, examining her. She swallowed, she felt hot and sweaty. She licked her lip, nervously, and turned to his partner, the infamous swordsman of the Mist village, Kisame. She saw a pretty lady, with serene blue eyes and blue hair to match, gazing at her. Finally her eyes landed on the man called the leader.

"I am Pein, god, and leader of the Akatsuki" he began, his peircings glinting in the little candle light there was. "You, Akemi, come here, asking to join the Akatsuki. Yet you assaulted one of our own members". She spoke with all the respect she could muster, "Leader-sama, Deidara and I have planned to eventually meet in combat. It was friendly competition. I had also hoped that it could, somehow reveal my worth for Akatsuki". The man called Pein showed no difference and continued "though you showed an amount of worth during the spar. I cannot let you in just yet. Akemi…" she clenched her hands "your real test…" she slowly reached for her kunai , "…begins now".

From the gloom below the hands, a silent kunai flew forward, aimed at her heart. It a swift motion, she caught and threw it back, with an air of ease. There was a sound of clanging metal from the gloom, and the previous kunai fell to the ground, spinning. Akemi watched it spin, hearing foot steps from the gloom. Pein spoke "while Konan and I were away, we ran into a kunoichi requesting entrance into Akatsuki. The two of you are to fight. If you are of any worth, you shall be admitted. That's all".

Akemi smirked "so all I have to do is beat up some Itachi fan girl and I'm in?". Itachi scowled a little and Kisame snickered. "Me, a fan girl?" a voice from the gloom erupted, "when pigs fly". The smirk fell off of Akemi's face and her eyes widened a little. If it weren't for the color of the eyes, she would have mistaken the girl standing in the gloom, for Sakura Haruno. What she saw now…was golden eyes.

Gold. _Gold… _"You…" Akemi started, her eyes lowered to the Tsuki head protecter around the neck of her adversary, "why are you still alive?". "Isn't that a story to tell? Don't worry, we have time for it later, but now…" she pointed a kunai lazily at Akemi, "…defend yourself". Realization dawning in Akemi, she affixed a smirk on her lips. With a finger she beckoned to Tatsumi, "bring it on".

There. As you can all see, Tatsumi is perfectly fine. Now, the hype begins, I hope I managed to satisfy, you guys, please R&R!


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